D 
<2>35 

H5 


UC-NRLF 


B    H    D7T    D31 


The  Department  of  Agriculture  believes  that  the 
problems  discussed  herein  should  receive  the 
earnest    consideration    of  American    business    men 


THE  BUSINESS  OF 
AGRICULTURE 

During  the  War 
and  After 


Discussion  of  the  Nation's  Most  Vital  Industry,  by 

D.    F.    Houston,    Secretary   of  Agriculture; 

R.  A.  Pearson,  Assistant  Secretary;  and 

Clarence  Ousley,  Assistant  Secretary 


UNITED   STATES 

DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE 

Washington,  D.  C. 


5> 


w 


THE  NEXT  GREAT  FACTOR  to  enlist  for  the  betterment  of  Agri- 
culture and  rural  life  int  his  Nation  is  the  business  man  of  the  town 
and  the  city.  He  has  not  always  been  alive  to  his  obligations.  He  has  con- 
tented himself,  in  too  many  instances,  with  plans  to  secure  profit  in  agri- 
cultural trade,  instead  of  sympathetically  and  eagerly  planning  constructive 
assistance.  This  duty,  pressing  in  peace  time,  is  of  the  most  urgent  and 
impelling  character  in  this  crisis;  and  I  appeal  to  the  bankers  and  business 
men  to  see  that  they  omit  no  effort  to  familiarize  themselves  with  the 
agencies  serving  to  aid  the  farmers  and  to  promote  wise  plans  to  secure;  the 
necessary  results. 

D.  F.  HOUSTON, 
Secretary  of  Agriculture. 

IN  THE  INTEREST  of  our  national  development  at  all  times  and  in  the 
interest  of  war  efficiency  j  ust  now  our  agriculture  must  be  well  maintained. 
It  should  be  remembered  that  the  agricultural  unit  is  a  small  unit.  There 
are  six  million  farms  in  this  country,  each  an  individual  unit.  It  is  tc 
the  interest  of  persons  who  do  not  five  on  farms,  even  more  than  to  the 
interest  of  those  who  do  five  on  farms,  that  production  shall  be  kepi,  up. 
This  means  that  all  people,  not  farmers  alone,  but  those  who  five  in  cities 
as  well  as  the  farmers,  are  interested  in  experimental  and  educationa 
activities  along  agricultural  fines  as  conducted  by  the  Federal  Governmen' 
and  the  States.     These  efforts  should  be  liberally  supported. 

R.  A.  PEARSON, 
Assistant  Secretary  of  Agriculture 


IN  A  TIME  LIKE  THIS  no  man  has  a  moral  right,  whatever  his  fortune 
may  be,  to  employ  another  man  to  render  any  service  of  mere  comfor 
or  convenience,  when  the  finest  young  men  of  the  United  States  are  b 
France  digging  ditches,  sawing  lumber,  laying  rails,  and  playing  wit! 
death,  and  when  the  finest  young  women  of  the  United  States  are  scrubbing 
floors  in  hospitals,  and  it  is  a  sin  that  almost  approaches  the  unpardonabh 
offense  against  civilization  for  any  man  or  woman  in  the  United  States  t< 

engage  in  a  wasteful  or  unnecessary  service. 

CLARENCE  OUSLEY, 

Assistant  Secretary  of  Agriculture 


CJaih    tib         H"'0  •  Q^1. 


The  Farmers'  Achievements |     /VV:  s»'\ 

An  address  by  David  F.  Houston,  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  before 
the  State  Convention  of  the  Iowa  Bankers'  Association,  Dubuque, 
Iowa,  June  20,  1918 

I  AM  GLAD  of  this  opportunity  to  express  the  Nation's 
appreciation  of  the  patriotism  and  efficiency  of  the  farmers 
of  Iowa  and  of  the  whole  country.  The  efforts  and  achieve- 
ments of  the  millions  of  farm  men  and  women  have  been  noble 
and  remarkable.  The  farmers  have  occupied  the  first-line  First-line 
trenches  of  the  food  army.  They  and  the  agencies  assisting  T,re^chef  °^ 
them,  the  Federal  Department,  the  State  colleges  and  de-  Army° 
partments  of  agriculture,  were  prepared  when  we  entered  the 
war  and  had  been  for  years,  and  I  venture  the  assertion  that 
no  section  of  our  people  and  no  agencies  have  done  a  better 
job.  But  they  are  not  spectacular  performers — they  never 
are.  They  do  not  furnish  sensations  and  headlines.  They 
have  no  fixed  labor  day.  They  work  in  season  and  out  of 
season — from  early  morning  till  dusk;  but  they  do  not  work 
in  the  limelight.  They  are  not  in  the  view  of  people  living 
in  cities,  the  centers  of  intense  publicity. 

Urban  dwellers  ordinarily  devote  very  little  thought  to  rural 
districts  an  to  sources  of  food  supply.  Heretofore  they  have 
not  had  to  think  much  about  food.  If  it  is  abundant,  as  it 
usually  is,  they  take  it  for  granted.  If  it  becomes  scarce,  they 
develop  hysteria  and  an  amazing  capacity  for  making  sugges- 
tions. Within  the  last  year,  city  people  have  manifested  an 
intense  interest  in  food,  and,  not  knowing  their  Government, 
some  of  them  have  developed  the  highly  interesting  proposal 
that  some  Government  agency  should  be  created  to  give  atten- 
tion to  production.  They  have  seen  windows  placarded  and 
papers  filled  with  pleas  for  conservation,  for  investments  in 
Liberty  Bonds,  and  for  subscriptions  to  the  Red  Cross.  They 
have  wondered  why  they  have  not  seen  similar  evidence  of 
activity  in  the  field  of  production.  They  do  not  know  of  the 
thousands  of  men  and  women  quietly  working  in  every  rural 
community  of  the  Nation  and  the  millions  of  bulletins  and 
circulars  dealing  with  the  problems  from  hundreds  of  angles. 
They  forget  that  the  field  of  work  lies  outside  the  city.  They 
do  not  recognize  that  both  the  problem  and  the  method  are 
different. 

It  is  one  thing  to  ask  a  man  to  save.  It  is  one  thing 
to  ask  a  man  to  invest  in  Liberty  Bonds.  These  things 
tremendously  aid  the  Nation;  but  they  are  also  a  certain 
benefit  to  the  individual.  It  is  another  thing  to  ask  a  man 
to  put  his  labor  and  capital  into  the  production  of  food, 
facing  the  hazard  of  the  weather,  of  distribution,  and  of  the 


2060* 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 


Laws 

Encouraging 

Agriculture 


Federal 
Agents  at 
Work 


market.  Advice  to  him  to  do  so  is  one  thing,  assistance  to 
him  to  lessen  his  hazard  is  another,  and  such  assistance  is 
famished  bo  qufctjv  that  a  great  part  of  the  Nation  knows 
mothing  of  it  and  innocently  assumes  that  nothing  is  done. 

When  we  entered  the  great  war,  the  Nation  had  a  high 
state  of  preparedness  in  its  agricultural  organization,  whose 
foundations  were  laid  in  another  great  crisis,  resting  on  two 
laws  signed  by  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  one  creating  the  De- 
partment of  Agriculture,  the  other  the  land-grant  colleges. 
It  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  this  Nation  had  agencies 
working  for  the  betterment  of  rural  life  and  agriculture  which 
in  point  of  personnel  and  effectiveness  exceeded  those  of  any 
other  three  nations  in  the  world  combined.  It  had  more.  It 
had  legislation  bearing  on  agriculture,  much  of  which  had 
been  recently  passed,  which  is  without  a  parallel  abroad. 
I  refer  especially  to  the  Federal  reserve  act,  with  its  pro- 
visions to  facilitate  the  handling  of  agricultural  paper,  the 
Smith-Lever  demonstration  act,  the  cotton  futures,  the  grain 
standards,  the  warehouse,  the  farm  loan,  and  the  Federal 
aid  road  acts. 

In  April,  1917,  the  food  situation  of  the  Nation  was  not 
satisfactory.  The  time  for  action  was  short.  It  was  neces- 
sary that  nothing  be  omitted  to  increase  the  supply  of  food, 
feed,  live  stock,  and  clothing,  and  to  grow  strong  in  agricul- 
ture, while  Europe,  and  especially  the  Central  Powers,  were 
growing  weak.  The  machinery  was  ready.  The  farmers 
and  their  organizations  were  alert.  The  Department  and  its 
great  Allies,  the  land-grant  colleges,  immediately  proceeded 
to  redirect  their  activities  and  to  put  forth  all  their  energies 
in  the  most  promising  directions.^  In  a  conference  of  the 
agricultural  leaders  of  the  Nation  in  St.  Louis,  called  just 
before  we  entered  the  war,  a  program  for  further  organiza- 
tion, legislation  and  action  with  reference  to  production, 
conservation,  and  marketing  was  drawn  up,  the  principal 
features  of  which  have  been  enacted  into  law  without  sub- 
stantial change,  or  have  been  put  into  effect.  In  due  course, 
the  Congress  enacted  the  food  control  bill,  conceived  at  this 
conference,  now  administered  by  the  Food  Administration, 
and  the  emergency  food  production  act,  administered  by 
the  Department  of  Agriculture.  With  funds  made  available 
by  the  latter  act,  the  Department  increased  its  activities  along 
all  essential  lines  and  developed  new  ones.  It,  and  the 
State  colleges  cooperating  with  it,  quickly  took  steps  to  expand 
the  extension  work,  with  a  view  to  place  in  each  rural  county 
one  or  more  agents.  To-day  there  are  employed  in  this  great 
system  nearly  6,000  county  and  home-demonstration  agents, 
club  leaders,  and  specialists  in  various  lines.  These  agents 
have  not  only  actively  campaigned  for  increased  production 
along  economic  lines  and  carried  to  the  farmer  the  latest  and 


HOUSTON:     THE  FARMERS'  ACHIEVEMENTS  5 

best  scientific  and  practical  information,  but  they  have  also 
been  of  tremendous  assistance  to  other  branches  of  the  GcYera- 
ment,  such  as  the  Treasury  Department  in  ife  Liberty  Loan 
campaigns,  the  Food  Administration  in  its  conservation 
efforts,  and  the  Red  Cross  in  its  war  activities. .  It'.woaki 
require  a  volume  to  indicate  the  thousands  of  things  which 
the  Department,  in  cooperation  with  its  Allies,  is  doing.  It  is 
stimulating  production.  It  is  increasingly  controlling  plant 
and  animal  diseases,  reducing  losses  from  the  cattle  tick, 
hog  cholera,  predatory  animals,  and  cereal  pests.  In  co- 
operation with  the  Department  of  Labor,  it  is  rendering 
assistance  to  the  farmers  in  securing  labor.  It  has  safe- 
guarded seed  stocks  and  secured  and  distributed  good  seeds 
to  farmers  for  cash  at  the  lowest  possible  cost;  aided  in  trans- 
porting stock  from  drought-stricken  regions;  greatly  assisted 
in  the  marketing  of  farm  products;  and,  under  enormous 
difficulties,  has  helped  the  farmers  to  secure  a  larger  supply 
of  fertilizers.  It  has  also  placed  under  license  and  control 
the  ammonia  industry,  the  fertilizer  industry,  the  farm 
machinery  manufacturers  and  distributors,  and  is  now  de- 
veloping plans  for  the  regulation  of  the  stock  yards. 

The  Department  and  the  Food  Administration  have  through- 
out recognized  the  natural  interest  of  producers  in  the  agri- 
cultural policies  of  the  Government.  They  have  omitted  no 
opportunity  to  consult  producers.  They  have  held  many 
sectional  conferences.  They  have  formed  a  National  Farmers'  Sought 
Advisory  Committee,  consisting  of  able  representatives  from  p^^frg 
all  the  sections  of  the  Union.  The  chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  who  is  also  chairman  of  the  National  Com- 
mittee, will  reside  in  Washington  to  be  in  touch  with  the 
Department  and  the  Food  Administration  and  to  serve  also 
in  the  machinery  of  the  War  Industries  Board.  In  this  way 
he,  and  through  him  the  members  of  the  committee  and  the 
producers  of  the  Union,  will  have  a  very  direct  opportunity 
to  see  the  problems,  to  take  part  in  discussions  of  measures 
under  contemplation,  and  to  assist  in  arriving  at  wise  con- 
clusions. 

The  results  of  last  year's  agricultural  operations  speak  for 
themselves.  That  the  farmers  are  primarily  responsible  for 
them  and  deserve  the  credit  goes  without  saying;  but  it  would 
be  unfair  not  to  recognize  the  great  assistance  rendered  by 
the  Federal  and  State  departments  and  colleges  and  the 
tremendous  part  they  have  played  in  bringing  about  better 
food  conditions  for  this  Nation  and  for  the  Allies.  In  spite 
of  difficulties,  real  and  imaginary,  the  farmers  of  the  Nation, 
with  the  assistance  of  these  agencies,  extended  their  opera- 
tions, planted  23,000,000  acres  more  of  the  leading  food  crops 
than  in  1916,  a  larger  acreage  than  ever  before  planted  in  the 
history  of  the  Nation,  and  produced  record  crops  of  most 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 


Crop 
Prospects 


Ground  for 
Optimism 


products  except  wheat.  The  partial  failure  of  this  crop  was 
in  no  wise  due, to  Jack  of  interest  or  activity  on  the  part  of 
the  farmers.  TVy  planted  a  large  acreage  but  had  the  mis- 
fo'-tuiv  to  lose  by  winter  killing  the  largest  percentage  of  it 
<\<i  :■<■;•  >nle#,,  as /they  also  had  the  misfortune  to  have  the 
largest  percentage  of  soft  corn  in  our  history.  These  things 
were  done  notwithstanding  the  insistent  representations — or 
rather  misrepresentations — made  in  Washington  and  else- 
where that  they  could  not  be  done.  Even  more  striking  is 
the  fact  that  they  greatly  increased  the  number  of  all  classes 
of  live  stock.  In  spite  of  exportations  of  horses  and  mules, 
they  increased  the  number  by  454,000.  They  increased  the 
number  of  milch  cows  by  390,000  and  of  other  cattle  by  nearly 
2,000,000;  the  number  of  sheep  for  the  first  time  in  a  genera- 
tion and  a  half,  by  1 ,300,000;  and  of  swine  by  nearly  4,000,000. 

The  indications  to  date  are  that  they  will  do  even  better 
this  year.  Last  fall  they  planted  the  record  winter  wheat 
acreage;  this  spring  the  record  spring  wheat  acreage.  The 
weather  conditions  have  been  increasingly  favorable  and  the 
indications  are  that  we  shall  have  more  than  930,000,000 
bushels  of  wheat.  This,  on  the  basis  of  a  normal  and  ex- 
travagant consumption,  would  allow  600,000,000  bushels  for 
domestic  use  and  an  exportable  surplus  of  330,000,000  bushels. 
But  this  is  not  all.  The  indications  are  that  the  rye  produc- 
tion will  exceed  that  of  the  record  year  by  21,000,000,  more 
than  double  the  output  in  peace  times;  that  the  production  of 
barley  will  be  increased  by  26,000,000;  and  that  oats  will 
approximately  equal  the  record  crop  of  1917,  exceeding  the 
five-year  average  by  over  300,000,000  bushels.  The  con- 
dition of  the  cotton  crop  exceeds  the  ten-year  average,  as 
does  also  that  of  all  hay  and  pastures.  It  is  too  early  to 
speak  of  the  corn  crop,  but  the  informal  indications  are  that 
the  acreage  will  be  large,  and  we  have  reason  to  believe  the 
quality  of  the  corn  will  be  by  no  means  as  low  as  last  year. 

These  statements  furnish  ground  for  optimism  and  for 
confidence  among  our  people  and  our  Allies  that  we  shall 
not  suffer  from  lack  of  food  and  that  we  shall  not  fail  to  win 
the  war  because  of  its  shortage.  They  should  be  reassuring 
to  consumers  and  a  matter  of  encouragement  to  farmers  that 
they  can  again  overcome  difficulties.  I  need  not  point  out  to 
bankers  the  large  bearing  of  this  enormous  production  on  the 
foundations  and  machinery  of  finance  and  credit.  In  normal 
times,  the  annual  contribution  of  the  farms  to  the  financial 
strength  of  the  Nation  has  run  as  high  as  thirteen  and  a  half 
billion  dollars.  On  the  basis  of  prices  existing  in  1917,  the 
output  was  estimated  to  be  worth  twenty-one  billions  of 
dollars,  a  sum  equal  to  the  total  appropriations  and  authoriza- 
tions made  by  the  war  session  of  Congress.  On  the  same 
basis,  it  is  highly  likely  that  this  year's  value  will  be  even 


Laborers 


HOUSTON:    THE  FARMERS'  ACHIEVEMENTS  7 

greater.  It  is  exceedingly  important  that  these  things  be 
seen  in  the  right  light.  While  they  represent  an  enormous 
increase  in  value,  they  do  not  imply  a  proportionate  increase 
in  volume  of  commodities.  And  it  would  be  highly  un- 
fortunate if  any  one  were  to  regard  the  promise  for  the  future 
as  any  warrant  whatever  for  relaxation  of  efforts  both  for 
greater  production  and  for  fuller  conservation.  There  will 
be  continuing  need  for  large  supplies  of  food,  clothing  and 
feed  products,  not  only  for  our  own  population  but  also  for 
the  Allies;  and  there  is  every  reasonable  indication  that  the 
conditions  will  result  in  fair  prices  to  the  farmers  whether 
war  continues  or  peace  comes.  For  even  if  peace  should 
come,  stricken  Europe  will  for  a  time  look  to  this  country 
not  only  for  large  supplies  of  food  but  will  especially  seek 
here  large  numbers  of  live  stock  with  which  to  replenish  their 
depleted  herds. 

These  statements  mean  another  thing.  They  mean  diffi- 
culties of  harvesting.  They  imply  the  need  of  large  numbers 
of  laborers.  The  Nation  must  see  to  it  that  the  labor  and  Needed 
capital  invested  in  planting  and  cultivation  shall  not  be  im- 
paired or  wasted  from  lack  of  labor  for  harvesting.  There  is 
a  duty  in  this  direction  resting  upon  the  town  and  city, 
resting  upon  you  and  all  other  business  men.  You  repre- 
sent for  the  most  part  communities  which  are  made  by  the 
back  country — which  would  not  exist  but  for  agricultural 
support.  It  is  both  a  matter  of  patriotism  and  business  for 
you  to  omit  no  effort  to  help  in  the  matter  of  labor  supply. 
I  have  stated  before,  and  I  say  again,  that  the  next  great 
factor  to  enlist  for  the  betterment  of  agriculture  and  rural 
life  in  this  Nation  is  the  business  man  of  the  town  and  the 
city.  He  has  not  always  been  alive  to  his  obligations.  He 
has  contented  himself,  in  too  many  instances,  with  plans  to 
secure  profit  in  agricultural  trade  instead  of  sympathetically 
and  eagerly  planning  constructive  assistance.  This  duty, 
pressing  in  peace  time,  is  of  the  most  urgent  and  impelling 
character  in  this  crisis;  and  I  appeal  to  the  bankers  and 
business  men  of  Iowa  to  see  that  they  omit  no  effort  to  famil- 
iarize themselves  with  the  agencies  serving  to  aid  the  farmers 
and  to  promote  wise  plans  to  secure  the  necessary  results. 
I  am  sure  that  the  bankers  of  Iowa  have  not  been  negligent  in 
this  matter. 

Obviously,  we  must  labor  unceasingly  to  produce  and  to 
save,  and  each  individual  must  recognize  the  pressing  obliga- 
tion resting  upon  him.  There  is  no  other  way  by  which  we  Mmi 
the  enormous  financial  burdens  of  this  war  can  be  met.  It  is  Pay  as  We 
a  simple  fact  that  the  burden  of  waging  this  war  must  be 
borne  by  this  Nation  as  it  proceeds.  This  is  a  simple  truth 
but  it  is  not  an  obvious  one.  Centuries  of  unsound  tradi- 
tions and  many  delusions  obscure  it.     There  is  a  singular 


8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

misapprehension  that,  by  resorting  to  loans,  the  burden  of 
waging  war  can,  to  that  extent,  be  shifted  to  future  genera- 
tions. If  this  were  true,  there  would  be  no  definable  limit 
to  the  extent  and  variety  of  war  the  present  generation  could 
wage.  The  commodities  needed  for  waging  war  must  be 
had  and  paid  for  at  the  time. 

The  iron,  the  steel,  the  coal,  the  clothing,  the  shoes,  the 
lumber,  the  ammunition,  the  guns,  and  the  ships  secured  by 
the  Government  are  used  and  destroyed  at  the  time,  and, 
for  the  most  part,  can  not  later  be  enjoyed.  At  the  end  of 
the  war  the  Nation  will  have  paid  for  them.  Borrowing 
shifts  nothing  but  a  credit  obligation  and  entails  a  burden  of 
restitution  and  readjustment.  A  credit  relation  is  set  up 
and  an  obligation  on  the  part  of  all  is  incurred  to  pay  back 
with  interest  the  wealth  the  Nation  has  borrowed,  with  all 
the  resulting  difficulties  and  irritations.  If  it  be  true  that 
the  burden  of  war  is  actually  borne  at  the  time,  then  it  follows 
that  the  capacity  of  a  nation  to  wage  war  is  measured  by  its 
ability  to  maintain  production  and  especially  to  save,  to 
abstain  from  consumption  of  anything  that  can  be  avoided, 
especially  of  luxuries,  and  to  stop  waste. 

As  I  see  it,  if  loans  were  made  exclusively  from  savings, 
except  for  the  subsequent  difficulties  of  reimbursement,  it 
would   be   relatively    unimportant   whether   the   control   of 
wealth  were  secured  through  loans  or  taxes.     But  these  are 
TWo  large  provisos.     Loans  are  not  always  provided  from  savings 

Arguments  and  we  can  not  escape  the  necessity  for  subsequent  adjust- 
for  Loans  ment.  As  I  see  it,  there  are  only  two  really  plausible  argu- 
ments for  resorting  mainly  to  loans,  one  a  psychological 
argument  that  the  people  will  not  appreciate  the  necessity 
for  the  war  and  be  impatient  or  resentful  of  sacrifices  imposed 
by  taxes;  the  other,  a  physical  one,  that  it  is  difficult  in  time 
to  devise  an  equitable  tax  measure,  to  administer  it  effectively, 
and  to  secure  revenue  promptly.  But  obviously  this  argu- 
ment has  diminishing  force  as  war  proceeds.  Taxes  have  the 
obvious  advantage  over  loans  that  they  more  directly  enforce 
economy  and  obviate  the  necessity  of  readjustment.  Taxa- 
tion, therefore,  especially  on  consumption,  more  particu- 
larly on  luxuries,  and  also  on  excessive  profits,  not  only  tend 
to  saving,  to  check  investment  in  nonessential  directions, 
but  also  to  keep  down  the  general  level  of  prices,  and  to  lessen 
the  financial  obligations  of  the  Nation. 

I  am  convinced  that  the  people  of  the  Nation  are  willing 
to  pay  the  necessary  taxes,  and  that  the  financiers  of  the 
People  Nation  recognize  the  necessity  of  sound  finance.     We  have 

Willing  been  fortunate  to  date.     In  the  field  of  finance,  as  in  the  field 

of  agriculture,  we  entered  the  war  in  a  state  of  preparedness. 
Who  among  you  can  estimate  at  its  real  value  the  Federal 
Reserve  law  and  the  creation  of  its  machinery  in  advance  of 


HOUSTON:    THE  FARMERS'  ACHIEVEMENTS  9 

the  breaking  out  of  this  world  conflict?  The  Nation's  finan- 
cial arrangement  had  never  previously  been  able  to  withstand 
strain  either  in  peace  or  war;  but  now,  after  four  years  of 
world  financial  strain  and  more  than  a  year  of  special  national 
strain,  such  as  no  financier  dreamed  it  possible  for  the  world 
to  bear,  through  the  wise  handling  of  the  machinery  of  the 
system  and  the  patriotic  cooperation  of  the  bankers,  our 
finances  are  still  sound  and  we  are  proceeding  in  orderly 
fashion.  No  greater  contribution  to  the  winning  of  this  war 
has  been  or  will  be  made  than  through  the  enactment  of  the 
Federal  Reserve  Act  in  1913  and  the  successful  establishment 
of  the  system  well  in  advance  of  trouble. 

That  we  have  the  physical  resources  to  win  this  war  I 
entertain  no  doubt.  That  we  have  them  in  larger  measure 
than  any  other  nation  in  the  world  is  a  matter  of  common 
knowledge.  We  have  not  fully  realized  the  enormous  power 
of  the  country.  If,  in  the  60's,  when  we  were  a  simple,  crude, 
undeveloped  Nation,  doing  things  in  a  small  way,  with  the 
question  yet  undetermined  whether  we  were  to  be  one  nation 
or  two,  we  could  wage  the  mightiest  war  up  to  that  time  and 
issue  from  it  with  unrivaled  power,  what  can  we  not  do 
today,  with  a  united  people  and  with  immeasurably  greater 
resources,  if  our  spirit  is  right  and  our  purpose  is  steadfast! 
There  can  be  no  slacking  on  the  part  of  anybody.  If  the 
free,  democratic,  law-abiding  nations,  like  Great  Britain, 
France,  Italy,  and  Belgium,  are  destroyed,  if  Prussian  mili- 
tarism is  permitted  to  dominate,  then  the  Anglo-Saxon  fight 
for  free  institutions  and  liberty,  persisting  from  Runny mede 
to  Yorktown,  its  fight  against  the  absolute  right  of  kings  and 
barons,  with  its  Magna  Charta,  its  Bill  of  Rights,  its  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  and  the  heroic  fight  of  the  French,  of 
the  Italians,  of  the  Belgians  and  of  other  free  peoples  for 
liberty,  will  have  been  made  in  vain. 

There  is  and  can  be  only  one  thought  uppermost  in  our 
minds  today,  and  that  is  to  win  this  war.  The  conflict  is  a 
test  of  the  spirit  of  nations  even  more  than  of  their  material 
resources  and  strength.  In  the  words  of  the  Archbishop  of 
York,  "Force  will  fail  unless  there  is  moral  conviction  behind 
the  Nation,"  and  every  individual  proclaims,  "Here  I  stand; 
I  can  do  no  other.     So  help  me  God." 

I  shall  not  offend  your  intelligence  by  entering  into  a 
detailed  exposition  of  the  issues  confronting  us.  Still  we 
can  not  too  often  concentrate  attention  upon  them;  for  it  is 
true,  as  some  one  has  said,  that  the  last  word  on  the  theory  NatiorCs 
of  war  is  that  the  strength  of  the  nation  in  battle  is  measured  Strength 
by  the  hold  which  causes  and  purposes  of  the  war  have  on  the 
minds  and  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

You  know  the  story  of  the  violation  of  our  rights,  the  sinking 
of  merchant  ships,  the  murder  of  innocent  men,  women,  and 


10  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

children,  the  spying  and  intrigue  in  our  midst,  the  destruction 
of  our  ships,  the  broken  pledges,  and  the  assault  on  all  human- 
ity and  civilization.  You  know  how  long  and  patiently  the 
President  labored  to  keep  this  Nation  at  peace  and  to  preserve 
its  neutrality.  You  do  not  need  to  be  reminded  of  the  bitter 
criticism  to  which  he  was  subjected  at  home  and  abroad. 
Such  patience  and  forbearance  have  never  before  been  ex- 
hibited by  the  head  of  any  great  state.  You  know  that  he 
yielded  only  when  failure  to  act  would  have  meant  the  sacri- 
fice of  every  principle  which  the  American  people  hold  sacred 
and  for  which  they  have  always  been  willing  to  fight,  and 
would  have  involved  the  submission  of  this  great  Nation  to 
the  dictation  of  an  arrogant  power. 

We  fight  a  nation  which  knows  no  law,  except  its  own  law 
of  necessity  made  in  Prussia,  exclusively  interpreted  by  her, 
and  to  be  changed  by  her  at  will.  It  was  this  law  of  necessity 
that  Germany  invoked  when  she  established  her  illegal  war 
zone  and  began  her  career  of  murder  on  the  high  seas.  Be- 
cause England  possessed  a  mighty  fleet  and  was  using  it  in 
conventional  ways  to  prevent  supplies  from  reaching  her  foe, 
Germany  adopted  her  nefarious  submarine  policy  and  arro- 
gantly based  it  on  her  law  of  necessity. 

It  was  necessary  for  Germany  to  get  at  France.  France 
did  not  desire  war.  She  was  in  her  most  pacific  mood  and 
TMngs  „  unprepared;  but,  when  Germany  challenged  her  to  know 
to  Germany  whether  she  would  keep  her  faith  with  Russia  or  not,  France 
replied  that  a  treaty  with  her  was  a  sacred  thing,  and  that 
she  would  keep  her  word  and  preserve  her  honor.  To  get  at 
France  Germany  decided  that  it  was  "necessary"  that  she 
should  go  through  Belgium.  She  brutally  informed  Belgium 
that,  if  she  was  hospitable,  she  would  recompense  her  and 
guarantee  her  possessions,  but,  if  she  resisted,  she  would 
regard  her  as  an  enemy.  Little  Belgium  replied  that  she 
was  a  Nation  and  not  a  military  highway. 

Great  Britain  had  asked  both  France  and  Germany  what 
their  intentions  were  with  reference  to  Belgium.  France 
replied  that  she  had  pledged  her  faith  and  that,  of  course,  she 
would  keep  her  word.  Germany  temporized.  Finally  the 
British  Ambassador  at  Berlin  was  instructed  to  secure  a 
definite  answer  by  midnight.  On  the  fourth  of  August,  he 
saw  the  minister  for  foreign  affairs,  who  stated  that  German 
troops  that  morning  had  entered  Belgium,  that  they  had  to 
advance  by  the  quickest  and  easiest  way  so  that  they  could 
get  ahead  of  their  enemy  and  strike  a  decisive  blow.  The 
southern  line  had  too  many  roads  and  too  many  strong 
fortresses.  Rapidity  of  action  was  the  great  German  asset. 
It  was  "necessary"  for  her  to  go  through  Belgium.  It  was  a 
matter  of  life  and  death.  To  get  at  great  France,  she  must 
destroy  little  Belgium  and  murder  her  women  and  children. 


HOUSTON:    THE  FARMERS'  ACHIEVEMENTS  11 

The  English  Ambassador  remarked  that  this  was  very 
serious  and  he  would  see  the  Chancellor.  The  Chancellor 
was  excited,  and  harangued  the  Ambassador  for  twenty 
minutes,  saying  that  England's  action  was  terrible  to  a 
degree.  Just  for  a  word,  "neutrality,"  just  for  a  scrap  of 
paper,  Great  Britain  was  going  to  make  war  on  a  kindred 
nation.  He  held  Great  Britain  responsible  for  all  the  terrible 
events  that  might  happen. 

Nothing  in  history  is  finer  than  the  reply  of  the  British 
Ambassador.     "If  for  strategical  reasons  it  was  a  matter  of 
life  and  death  for  Germany  to  advance  through  Belgium, 
violate  her  solemn  pledge  and  the  latter 's  neutrality,  so  it  ReSpectfor 
was  a  matter  of  life  and  death  for  the  honour  of  Great  Britain  International 
that  she  should  keep  her  solemn  engagements."     "But  at  Engagements 
what   a   price!"    exclaimed   the   Chancellor.     "The   fear   of 
consequences,"  the  Englishman  replied,  "could  scarcely  be 
regarded  as  an  excuse  for  breaking  solemn  engagements." 
The  German  Chancellor,  in  his  speech  before  the  Reichstag 
the  same  day,  admitted  that  this  was  contrary  to  the  dictates 
of  international  law,  but  asserted  that  "it  was  necessary" 
to  ride  ovei  the  legitimate  interests  of  the  governments  of 
Luxemburg  and  Belgium. 

We  are  fighting  a  power  which  has  an  insane  desire  for 
domination  and  knows  only  one  royal  road  to  expansion  and 
domination,  the  way  of  might.  Germany  entertains  the  stupid 
notion  that  it  is  necessary  for  her  happiness  and  prosperity 
to  dominate  peoples  of  the  earth  by  military  conquest.  From 
the  earliest  time,  the  guiding  principle  of  Prussia's  politics 
has  been  to  stand  ready  at  all  times  with  overwhelming  force 
to  secure  increased  territory  by  violence  and  intrigue.  Her 
first  great  application  of  this  principle  was  made  in  1740. 
Before  the  death  of  his  overlord,  the  Emperor  of  Austria, 
the  Great  Frederick,  so-called,  solemnly  pledged  himself  to 
observe  the  right  of  succession  of  Maria  Theresa,  and  to  con- 
firm her  in  her  possessions.  On  the  death  of  the  Emperor, 
in  1740,  Frederick  promptly  gave  Maria  Theresa  assurance  of 
support,  having  in  his  mind  at  the  very  moment  to  commit 
a  crime  against  her.  Suddenly  moving  his  army  against  her 
Province  of  Silesia,  after  eight  years  of  desperate  warfare, 
he  appropriated  it. 

Prussia's  next  considerable  piece  of  robbery  was  in  1864. 
She  induced  Austria  to  join  her  in  taking  from  Denmark 
Schleswig   and   Holstein.     She   then   turned   upon   Austria, 
seized  her  part  of  the  booty,  and,  in  addition,  annexed  four  prussia's 
of  her  considerable  possessions.     The  Prussian  parliament   Next 
still  had  some  conscience  left  and  protested  that  force  was  R°obery 
not  a  sufficient  justification  for  what  had  been  done  to  Den- 
mark.    Bismarck  replied:    "Our   right  is   the   right  of  the 
German  nation  to  exist,  to  breathe,  and  to  unite."     His 


12  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

law  was  the  law  of  necessity.  Her  last  successful  "bandit 
stunt"  was  the  appropriation  of  Alsace-Lorraine;  and  now 
she  is  engaged  on  a  much  more  ambitious  undertaking.  Is  it 
any  wonder  that  her  writers  hold  that  the  lessons  of  history 
confirm  the  view  that  wars  which  have  been  deliberately  pro- 
voked by  far-seeing  statesmen  have  had  the  happiest  results? 
Is  it  surprising  that  the  German  Emperor  asserts  that  the 
sword  is  his  best  protection,  that  a  great  army  is  the  corner- 
stone of  his  well-being,  and  that  war  is  a  positive  good?  Prussia 
believes  that  war  pays.  It  is  her  induction  from  her  history. 
The  world  must  teach  her  that  it  will  no  longer  pay,  and  that 
her  career  as  a  bandit  is  ended.  It  is  now  engaged  in  this 
difficult  business. 

We  fight  a  power  with  an  archaic,  out-of-date,  medieval 
state  of  mind.     Its  people  placidly  accept  the  doctrine  that 
their  rulers  reign  by  divine  right,  that  God  is  a  German  god, 
not  that  they  are  on  His  side,  but  that  He  is  on  their  side, 
Ow  and  that  the  German  people  are  God's  chosen  people.     Note 

Medieval  ^\s  utterance  of  an  ordained  German  minister,  quoted  by 
Secretary  Lansing:  "It  may  sound  proud,  my  friends,  but 
we  are  conscious  that  it  is  also  in  all  humbleness  that  we  say 
it;  the  German  soul  is  God's  soul;  it  shall  and  will  rule  over 
mankind."  Or  this,  the  recent  address  of  the  Kaiser  to  his 
troops:  "Remember  that  the  German  people  are  the  chosen 
of  God.  On  me,  the  German  Emperor,  the  Spirit  of  God 
has  descended.  I  am  His  sword,  His  weapon,  and  His  vice- 
regent.  Woe  to  the  disobedient  and  death  to  cowards  and 
unbelievers."  What  blasphemy!  The  Spirit  of  God  de- 
scending on  the  spirit  of  the  man  who  decorates  naval  com- 
manders responsible  for  the  drowning  of  hundreds  of  women 
and  children!  The  Spirit  of  God  descending  on  the  spirit  of 
the  man  whose  military  commanders  sanction  the  mutilation 
of  children  and  the  rape  of  women  in  Belgium,  France, 
Serbia,  and  Poland! 

Here  we  still  see  medievalism  stupidly  strutting  before  the 
offended  eyes  of  men  and  of  God  !  And  so  it  is  that,  in  its 
final  analysis,  the  great  issue  is  that  between  medievalism 
and  modernism,  between  the  Prussian  rule  of  necessity  and 
might  and  the  rule  of  right,  between  the  arbitrary  rule  of 
whim  and  the  serene  rule  of  law.  We  people  of  the  modern 
world  had  thought  that  we  had  made  an  end  to  such  things 
and  freed  ourselves  from  them  forever;  that  England  had 
given  the  finishing  touch  to  the  rule  of  divine  right  and  of 
whim  when  she  cut  off  the  head  of  the  Stuart;  and  that  France 
had  done  the  same  when,  two  centuries  later,  she  acted  in 
similar  drastic  fashion.  But  we  had  been  blind  to  the  realities 
of  central  Europe  and  had  failed  to  take  note  of  the  fact  that 
modern  means  of  transportation  and  electricity  had  made  the 
western  world  of  our  day  much  smaller  than  the  Thirteen 


HOUSTON:    THE  FARMERS'  ACHIEVEMENTS  13 

Colonies  were  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  when  they 
proclaimed  their  independence. 

It  was  from  this  feudal-minded,  vain,  insolent,  and  arrogant 
power,  from  the  military  overlords  of  Prussia,  that  the  orders 
came  in  February,  1917,  to  us,  to  100,000,000  of  the  freest  Orte^io 
people  in  the  world.  These  orders  were  the  final  expression  of  America 
Prussian  whim:  "Keep  your  people  at  home,"  they  com- 
manded. "Tie  up  all  your  ships  except  one.  Stripe  it  as  I 
dictate;  let  it  sail  on  the  day  I  fix;  send  it  to  the  port  I  desig- 
nate. Tell  your  manufacturers  to  keep  their  products  in 
their  warehouses.  Let  your  surplus  foodstuffs  go  to  waste. 
Tell  your  farmers  to  keep  their  millions  of  bales  of  cotton, 
their  grain,  and  their  meat  at  home  till  I  order  otherwise. 
Set  aside  international  law  and  accept  my  law  of  necessity 
till  I  crush  the  great  modern  free  states  of  Europe.  Stand 
by  till  I  finish  with  them  and  then  maybe  I  will  attend  to 
you.  Although  our  spies  are  operating  among  your  people, 
in  Mexico,  Japan,  and  elsewhere,  even  while  you  give  hospi- 
tality to  our  ambassador,  and  although  our  agents  are  de- 
stroying yom  plants  and  our  submarines  are  killing  your 
citizens,  stand  aside.     These  are  my  orders." 

What  would  we  do  about  it?  What  answer  would  we 
make?  What  answer  was  there  except  one?  Life  is  precious; 
but  not  at  the  sacrifice  of  everything  that  makes  it  worth 
while.  National  peace  is  desirable;  but  not  at  the  cost  of 
everything  that  makes  a  nation  worth  saving.  No  man 
worthy  of  the  name  of  American  citizen  in  such  a  situation 
could  fail  to  exclaim  with  Patrick  Henry,  "Is  life  so  dear  or 
peace  so  sweet  as  to  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  chains  and 
slavery?  Forbid  it,  Almighty  God.  I  know  not  what  course 
others  may  take,  but  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty  or  give  me 
death." 

What  would  Washington  have  said?  And  Jefferson,  and 
Samuel  Adams,  and  Andrew  Jackson?  What  Lincoln,  and 
Davis?  Grant  and  Lee?  Sherman  and  Stonewall  Jackson? 
What  Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  Stuart,  Sheridan,  Meade, 
Thomas,  Wheeler,  Hancock,  and  hosts  of  others  who  died 
that  the  Nation  might  live?  What  did  you  say  then?  What 
do  you  say  now?  For  my  part,  I  would  rather  see  this  Nation 
gloriously  fail  fighting  for  freedom  with  great  England,  heroic 
France,  Italy,  and  Belgium  and  to  see  it  pass  from  the  pages 
of  history  than  to  see  it  survive  in  the  greatest  ease  and 
luxury  submissive  in  any  respect  to  the  dictation  of  Germany. 

We  have  discovered  that  there  is  truth  in  Jefferson's 
assertion  that  the  Tree  of  Liberty  is  a  tender  plant  and  that, 
as  it  grows  from  more  to  more,  it  has  to  be  watered  by  the 
blood  of  patriots.  We  have  discovered  that  independence  in 
this  world  is  not  a  thing  which  can  for  all  time  be  secured  by 
what  is  done  at  a  given  place  on  a  particular  day.     We  have 


14 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 


The  Way  to 
Victory 


Those  Who 
Spread  Class 
Conscious- 
ness 


learned  that  the  process  of  civilizing  the  world  and  of  sub- 
jecting the  disorderly  to  the  rule  of  law  is  a  slow  one.  There 
must  be  another  Fourth  of  July  for  all  the  world,  and  we  are 
now  in  the  midst  of  making  it  good.  But  I  verily  believe 
that,  when  we  this  time  set  the  world  free  from  Germany,  its 
independence  will  not  again  be  seriously  menaced;  for  Ger- 
many is  its  last  great  foe. 

We  are  now  engaged  in  this  task.  Will  we  complete  it? 
Can  we  stand  the  test?  One  thing  is  clear.  The  way  through 
this  grim  business  is  the  only  way  out.  There  can  be  no  turn- 
ing back,  no  faltering,  no  hesitation.  This  war  will  not 
be  won  by  a  miracle  or  by  enchantment.  The  quickest  way 
to  win  it,  the  cheapest  way,  if  you  please,  is  to  put  into  the 
struggle  every  ounce  of  our  will,  intelligence,  and  power  as 
quickly  as  possible  where  it  will  be  most  effective.  It  will 
not  be  won  by  soap-box  orators  or  professional  pacifists.  If 
such  people  could  win  a  war  against  the  Germans,  the  Russians 
would  have  been  in  Berlin  long  ago. 

It  will  not  be  won  by  irresponsible  critics.  It  will  not  be 
won  by  misrepresentations  based  on  ignorance  or  partisan- 
ship, or  inspired  by  the  mischievous.  There  are  many  of 
these  among  us.  It  will  not  be  possible  to  Bolshevikize  the 
people  of  this  Nation,  but  there  are  many  who  are  valiantly 
engaged  in  the  attempt. 

It  is  the  duty  of  good  citizens  to  keep  their  heads,  to  de- 
mand of  such  critics  their  evidence,  and  to  place  the  burden 
of  proof  not  upon  conscientious  public  servants  of  all  shades  of 
opinion  who  are  serving  the  Nation,  but  upon  these  ignorant 
and  mischievous  persons  who  greatly  hamper  public  business 
and  are  endangering  the  lives  of  thousands  of  your  boys. 

This  war  will  not  be  won  by  those  people  of  confused  minds 
who  profess  to  see  nothing  in  our  life  and  institutions  dif- 
ferent from  what  they  find  in  medieval  countries  of  Europe. 
They  deceive  themselves  by  phrases,  and  have  never  caught 
the  meaning  of  the  American  spirit  and  institutions.  No 
greater  duty  rests  upon  the  leaders  of  thought  than  that  of 
bringing  home  to  all  the  people  of  the  Nation  the  real  meaning 
of  our  institutions  and  life.  They  must  be  taught  that  ours 
is  a  Government  of  law  and  of  majorities;  that  every  good 
cause  has  its  day  in  court;  but  that,  if  they  can  not  convert  a 
majority  to  their  way  of  thinking,  they  will  not  be  permitted 
to  achieve  their  ends  by  violence. 

This  war  will  not  be  won  by  those  who  spread  the  doctrine 
of  class  consciousness,  promote  the  theory  of  class  struggle, 
and  who  really  mean  to  secure  the  dominance  of  their  class. 
Their  plans  will  not  prevail.  The  Nation  has  not  been 
working  in  vain  for  centuries  to  destroy  class  rule,  to  develop 
a  common  consciousness  and  a  government  by  all  the  people. 
Government  by  classes  and  class  interest  is  passing  from  the 


HOUSTON:    THE  FARMERS'  ACHIEVEMENTS  15 

earth.  It  is  the  German  plan  and  it  is  the  antithesis  of 
democracy,  as  President  Butler  observed.  The  American 
people  will  have  none  of  it. 

We  have  undertaken  the  biggest  task  of  our  lives.  Our 
work  is  cut  out  for  us.  We  must  see  it  through  to  a  successful 
end.  We  must  let  nothing  divert  us.  But,  as  order  and 
organization  increasingly  develop,  as  our  mighty  energies  are 
overwhelmingly  directed  against  the  foe,  we  must  give  thought 
to  the  binding  up  of  the  "Nation's  wounds"  and  to  the  tasks 
of  reconstruction.  This  the  Government  has  begun  to  do. 
We  must,  in  advance,  for  example,  plan  the  demobilization 
of  our  forces,  the  conservation  and  disposition  of  Government 
property,  the  redirection  of  industry,  the  adjustment  of  land 
and  water  transportation,  the  safeguarding  of  labor  standards, 
and  the  rearrangement  of  our  finances.  There  will  be  many 
difficulties  and  dangers.  There  will  be  thousands  of  people 
burdening  themselves  with  the  tasks.  This  is  one  of  the 
advantages  of  democracy.  It  is  also  one  of  its  difficulties. 
There  wiH  be  many  futile  proposals — some  of  them  very 
selfish.  What  is  needed  is  a  clear  analysis  of  the  situation, 
a  keen  sense  of  direction,  and  a  large  patriotic  view.  It  will 
be  an  aid  if  our  people  will  realize  that  the  problems  can  not 
be  dealt  with  largely  in  terms  of  European  experience,  and 
will  bear  in  mind  American  conditions,  which,  in  great 
measure,  will  be  different  and  peculiar. 

There  are  those  who,  in  view  of  some  existing  tendencies 
and  practices,  predict  a  permanent  radical  change  in  our 
institutions  and  habits — the  disappearance  of  individualism 
and  the  wholesale  substitution  of  State  socialism,  or  even  Mark 
communism.  There  are  always  people  who  violate  Mark  Twain's 
Twain's  best  maxim:  "Never  get  more  out  of  an  experience  axim 
than  there  is  in  it."  I  wish  every  citizen  would  frame  it. 
Mark  Twain  illustrates  the  maxim,  saying:  "A  cat  that  has 
sat  on  a  hot  stove  lid  will  never  sit  on  a  hot  stove  lid  again; 
but  the  trouble  with  the  cat  is  that,  thereafter,  it  will  not 
even  sit  on  a  cold  stove  lid."  There  are  many  people  like 
the  cat.  Doubtless  many  good  things  will  come  out  of  this 
situation.  There  will  be  large,  permanent  useful  deposits. 
But  human  nature  can  not  be  entirely  revolutionized.  Civil- 
ization grows  slowly  "from  more  to  more."  The  process  is, 
as  Tennyson  expresses  it,  "by  slow  prudence,  to  make  mild  a 
rugged  people,  and  through  soft  degrees  subdue  them  to  the 
useful  and  the  good."  There  have  been  other  great  crises  in 
the  world's  history.  In  Cromwell's  time,  the  English  people 
reached  a  high  degree  of  regulation,  and  thought  they  had 
fixed  their  institutions  in  somewhat  perfect  democratic 
molds.  But  the  reaction  came.  The  principal  thing  which 
remained  was  the  overthrow  of  divine  rights  and  arbitrary 
rule  and  the  firm  beginnings  of  responsible  government.     So 


16  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

also,  France,  in  1790,  thought  she  had  reached  a  degree  of 
democratic  perfection  which,  in  fact,  she  has  only  approxi- 
mated after  more  than  a  century. 

In  the  struggle  now  before  us,  we  aim  at  nothing  selfish. 
We  are  bent  on  demonstrating  that  militarism  does  not  pay; 
and  that  nations  can  not  longer  seek  to  dominate  the  world 
by  force.  We  are  embarked  on  the  enterprise  of  teaching 
the  lesson  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  a  nation's  welfare  and 
happiness  that  it  seek  to  acquire  such  domination  by  might, 
and  that  the  only  really  worthy  national  ambition  is  to  have 
a  clean  national  household  from  cellar  to  attic.  We  are 
determined  to  teach  the  lesson  that  law  must  rule  among 
nations  as  among  individuals  and  to  establish  guarantees  for 
future  peace  and  the  prevention  of  a  recurrence  of  such  a 
calamity  as  this. 

We  shall  not  fail.     We  are  aligned  with  the  free  forces  of 
the  world  and  have  back  of  us  the  conscience  of  civilization. 
I  agree  with  the  Archbishop  of  York  that,  in  the  ultimate 
analysis,  there  must  be  some  power  that  can  change  the 
World  Not      hearts  of  the  German  people  which  alone  can  make  them  fit 
Going  associates  for  free  and  self-governing  peoples.     This  German 

plan  of  world  empire  will  collapse  as  have  other  similar  plans. 
It  is  not  the  first  time  that  it  has  been  tried.  The  Persians 
tried  it  and  were  halted  at  Marathon  and  Salamis. 
Alexander  attempted  it  and  did  not  even  get  back  home. 
Rome  sought  it  and  was  finally  overwhelmed  by  barbarians. 
Napoleon  played  for  the  same  stake  and  ended  his  days  at 
St.  Helena.  The  Kaiser  in  his  time  will  learn  his  lesson.  This 
old  world  is  not  going  backward.  It  is  not  going  the  way  of 
the  Kaiser.  It  is  going  the  way  of  Clemenceau,  Lloyd  George, 
and  Woodrow  Wilson. 


War  Agriculture 

An  Address  by  Raymond  A.  Pearson,  Assistant  Secretary  of  Agriculture, 
at  the  Annual  Convention  of  the  National  Wholesale  Grocers'  Asso- 
ciation at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  June  12,  1918 

THIS  is  a  "Conservation  Convention,"  but  if  you  have  a  slo- 
gan I  am  sure  it  is  that  this  shall  be  a  win-the-war  con- 
vention. I  can  not  think  otherwise  of  you  gentlemen,  and  of 
your  association,  because  I  know  something  of  your  prompt- 
ness in  offering  to  cooperate  with  the  Government  when  we 
entered  the  war,  and  I  know  something  of  what  you  have 
done  since,  including  voluntary  financial  sacrifices.  My 
information  has  come  from  some  of  your  members  with 
whom  I  am  acquainted,  but  more  particularly  from  occa- 
sional conferences  with  your  president,  Mr.  Whitmarsh, 
whose  unselfish  and  loyal  service  as  an  individual,  as  presi- 
dent of  your  organization,  and  one  of  the  chief  officers  of  the 
Food  Administration,  is  worthy  of  high  commendation. 
Also  I  have  read  your  bulletin,  which  is  full  of  valuable  in- 
formation and  bristles  with  patriotism  and  reflects  credit 
upon  your  secretary,  Mr.  Beckmann. 

Some  day  the  things  that  have  happened  and  are  now 
happening  will  be  shown  up  to  all  of  us  in  parallel  columns 
and  then  we  shall  have  time  to  give  more  attention  to  and 
evidence  more  appreciation  of  those  who  have  come  to  the 
front  and  fought  for  their  country  both  in  and  out  of  the 
military  service.  There  will  be  parallel  columns  telling  why 
the  different  countries  entered  the  war.  Why  Differ- 

In  the  case  of  Germany  it  will  be  selfishness  first,  arrogance  ^Countries 
second,  conceit  third,  and  avarice  fourth. 

In  the  case  of  France  it  will  be  self-defense  first  and  defense 
of  ideals  second. 

In  the  case  of  Great  Britain  it  will  be  honor  first  and  defense 
of  principles  second. 

In  the  case  of  the  United  States  it  will  be  defense  of  ideals 
first  and  self-defense  second. 

Another  set  of  parallel  columns  will  show  methods  of 
warfare.  It  will  give  such  items  as  this:  A  German  sub- 
marine stops  the  Belgian  Prince,  a  defenseless  boat,  and 
orders  her  crew  to  come  aboard  the  submarine,  throw  off  their 
life  preservers,  and  stand  helpless  as  the  submarine  speeds 
through  the  water,  gradually  submerging  while  one  after 
another  of  the  helpless  sailors  is  washed  away.  As  compared 
with  this,  there  will  stand  the  record  of  an  American  fighting 
ship  which  captured  a  German  submarine,  took  the  crew 

17 


Honor  List 


18  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

aboard,  some  of  whom  were  even  rescued  from  the  water 
where  they  had  found  themselves  because  of  their  own  treach- 
ery, fed  them,  clothed  them,  and  delivered  them  to  safety. 

Another  set  of  parallel  columns  will  show  what  is  done  in 
captured  territory.  In  the  German  column  we  shall  have 
accounts  of  the  most  atrocious  cruelties  as  compared  with 
decency  and  kindness  shown  by  the  Allies  and  this  country. 

It  is  too  early  to  predict  what  will  be  in  the  parallel  column 
showing  the  accomplishments  of  the  war,  but  we  are  all 
confidently  hoping  it  will  show  that  Germany  gets  what  she 
richly  deserves — that  she  recognizes  she  is  not  the  sole  and 
directing  partner  of  the  Almighty,  and  that  she  will  do  well 
to  rule  such  part  of  the  world  as  the  United  States  and  the 
Allies  will  permit.  As  compared  with  this  our  chief  hope  is 
that  our  country  may  continue  to  prosper  along  the  lines 
laid  down  by  our  grandfathers,  and  that  our  ideals  of  liberty 
and  justice  shall  become  even  more  widely  and  more  firmly 
established  here  and,  in  fact,  throughout  the  whole  world. 
Farmers'  But  hard  work,  great  sacrifices,  and  bitter  suffering  must 

h^L°",-^  be  accepted  willingly  if  the  end  we  seek  is  to  be  realized. 
When  the  history  is  written,  individuals  and  associations 
that  have  loyally  helped  throughout  should  be  duly  recog- 
nized. On  the  honor  fist  of  these,  besides  the  name  of  your 
association  and  others,  I  believe  that  the  farmers  of  this 
country  also  will  have  a  prominent  place.  Their  problem 
is  exceedingly  difficult.  I  am  here  to  tell  you  something  of 
it  and  to  suggest  ways  in  which  further  cooperation  between 
agriculture  and  business  interests,  your  own  business  par- 
ticularly, may  be  developed. 

About  half  the  people  in  this  country  are  classified  as  rural 
and  depend  intimately  upon  agriculture.  The  other  half 
depend  upon  agriculture  to  a  greater  extent  than  many  of 
them  realize.  It  would  be  interesting  to  show  how  our 
country  is  steadily  developing  along  industrial  and  non- 
agricultural  lines,  with  the  growth  of  many  large  cities — 
now  about  125  having  a  population  over  50,000 — with  their 
peculiar  problems.  These  developments  have  occurred  with 
little  thought  that  they  are  limited  by  developments  in 
agriculture.  If  one  man  can  produce  only  as  much  as  his 
own  family  must  eat,  then  each  man  must  be  a  farmer.  But, 
thanks  to  our  good  soil,  our  organizing  ability,  and  our  in- 
ventive genius,  the  average  farmer  produces  more  than  his 
family  needs.  Therefore  every  second  family  may  be  classed 
as  nonrural  or  urban. 

Those  who  have  been  engaged  in  agriculture  for  the  past 
25  years  have  seen  vast  changes  in  their  business.  In  1895 
corn  sold  as  low  as  25  cents  per  bushel;  each  bushel  leaving 
the  farm  carried  17  cents  worth  of  plant  food  or  soil  fertility. 


PEARSON:    WAR  AGRICULTURE 


19 


About  the  same  time  wheat  sold  at  52%  cents  for  a  bushel, 
and  each  bushel  leaving  the  farm  carried  away  23  cents  worth 
of  plant  food.  Oats  sold  at  163^  cents  a  bushel,  with  each 
bushel  carrying  10)^  cents  worth  of  plant  food.  Hay  sold 
at  $8  per  ton,  with  $5  worth  of  plant  food  in  each  ton.  An 
enormous  number  of  farmers  in  our  country  were  then  living 
by  reason  of  the  fact  that  they  were  able  to  steal  fertility 
from  their  lands.  They  were  using  their  capital  for  main- 
tenance expenses.  No  one  knew  these  things  better  than 
the  best  farmers  themselves.  We  did  not  then  hear  of 
business  men,  bankers,  and  railroad  men  talking  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  farming  and  advising  their  sons  to  go  into  that 
kind  of  work.  On  the  contrary,  the  most  promising  sons  of 
farmers  were  advised  and  helped  to  get  away  from  the  farm 
into  law  or  business  or  medicine  or  anything  respectable  that 
would  pay.  To  a  large  extent  respectability  depended  on 
the  pay. 

At  that  time  there  was  much  complaint  because  of  over- 
production in  agriculture  and  correspondingly  low  prices. 
Statistics  were  compiled  to  show,  for  example,  that  farmers 
did  better  with  their  corn  crop,  receiving  much  more  per 
bushel  and  a  larger  total,  when  the  yield  was  20  bushels  or 
less  per  acre  than  when  it  was,  say,  28  bushels  per  acre. 
The  market  situation  was  such  that  unusually  large  crops 
could  not  well  be  disposed  of.  This  may  become  an  im- 
portant matter  in  our  agriculture  almost  any  year.  For 
example,  a  certain  crop  in  a  certain  State  recently  amounted 
to  18  million  bushels,  worth  about  $1.20  per  bushel,  or  a 
total  of  22  million  dollars.  In  an  earlier  year  it  was  30 
million  bushels,  worth  40  cents  per  bushel,  or  a  total  of  12 
million  dollars.  It  is  easily  seen  why  overproduction  was 
feared  and  why  it  might  be  disastrous.  During  that  time 
the  educational  efforts  in  the  field  of  agriculture  were  largely 
along  the  line  of  more  economical  production. 

Another  period  in  agriculture  began  10  to  15  years  ago, 
when  it  was  found  that  our  surplus  of  agricultural  prod- 
ucts was  rapidly  approaching  the  vanishing  point.  Our 
population  was  increasing  faster  than  food  production.  James 
J.  Hill  was  one  of  the  first  to  see  this,  and  he  prophesied  that 
the  Nation  would  go  to  bed  hungry  within  20  years  if 
the  development  of  agriculture  did  not  receive  better  atten- 
tion. Prices  of  agricultural  products  increased  somewhat. 
This  gave  new  hope  to  farmers.  Agriculture  was  looked  upon 
with  more  favor  and  sons  of  farmers  decided  to  stay  in  the 
business,  and  young  men  raised  in  cities  looked  upon  agricul- 
ture as  their  future  occupation  with  as  much  favor  as  law, 
business,  medicine,  or  manufacturing.  Everyone  seemed  to 
appreciate  the  importance  of  agriculture,  whether  engaged  in 
it  or  not — it  was  a  100  per  cent  proposition!     Farmers  im- 


Changes  in 
Agriculture 


A  New 
Period  in 
Agriculture 


20  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

proved  their  methods.  They  were  able  to  get  better  ma- 
chinery and  to  repair  their  buildings. 

During  this  period  there  was  rapid  development  in  the  field 
of  agricultural  education  and  experimentation.  Many  problems 
were  solved,  and  a  vast  amount  of  knowledge  was  made  avail- 
able. About  25  years  ago  a  friend  of  mine  went  to  a  State 
university  to  get  all  the  information  he  could  about  dairy- 
ing. He  got  all  that  was  offered  in  four  lectures.  To-day  he 
could  hardly  get  it  in  four  years.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War 
a  young  man  returned  to  the  college  he  was  attending  when  he 
enlisted  and  with  the  determination  to  get  all  the  science 
offered.  He  got  it  in  three  months.  To-day  he  could  not 
get  it  in  30  years. 

One  of  the  greatest  instruments  for  improving  agriculture 
during  these  years  was  the  Federal  Department  of  Agriculture, 
with  its  experts  on  every  phase  of  agriculture,  its  close  touch 
and  cooperation  with  agricultural  colleges  in  all  the  States, 
and  its  great  number  of  publications. 

But  the  old  surplus  was  not  restored.  Our  population 
was  increasing  too  rapidly.  The  excess  value  of  our  agri- 
cultural exports  over  our  agricultural  imports  was  about 
450  million  dollars  per  year  18  years  ago.  It  was  about  350 
million  dollars  8  years  ago.  It  was  about  300  million  dollars 
6  years  ago.  In  1914  the  value  of  our  agricultural  exports 
exceeded  the  value  of  our  agricultural  imports  by  only  207 
million  dollars.  In  1915,  with  the  war  demand  from  Europe, 
the  difference  was  600  million  dollars,  but  in  1916  it  fell  to 
370  million  dollars.  In  1917,  with  our  stimulation  of  pro- 
duction and  conservation,  it  was  about  575  million  dollars, 
about  the  same  as  in  1901. 

Between  1900  and  1915  our  production  of  meats  per  capita 
of  population  fell  from  248  pounds  to  212  pounds,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  production  of  milk  per  capita  of  population 
How  Meat  fell  from  95.6  gallons  to  75.5  gallons.  Meat  and  dairy  prod- 
and  Milk  uctg  furnjsn  about  37  per  cent  of  the  food  used  on  the  Ameri- 
can  table.  In  the  same  period  cereals,  supplying  31  per  cent 
of  our  food,  declined  from  43.9  bushels  to  40.2  bushels  per 
capita  of  population.  Of  course,  we  had  to  save  ourselves 
by  cutting  down  our  exports.  In  1900  we  were  exporting 
about  500,000  live  cattle  per  year.  In  1914  the  number  was 
18,000,  and  in  1915  less  than  6,000.  Fresh  beef  exported 
annually  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  amounted  to  about 
300  million  pounds  per  year.  In  1914  it  was  less  than  7 
million  pounds.  The  war  demand  increased  the  amount  to 
230  million  pounds  in  1916,  but  there  was  a  falling  off  to 
about  200  million  pounds  in  1917.  The  total  exports  of  beef 
and  beef  products,  fresh,  canned,  cured,  oleo  oil,  etc.,  was 
more  than  700  million  pounds  in  1901,  but  only  151  million 
pounds  in  1914,  and,  with  the  European  war  demand,  the 


Declined 


PEARSON:     WAR  AGRICULTURE 


21 


largest  annual  exports  have  amounted  to  only  457  million 
pounds  up  to  and  including  1917.  The  estimated  total  for 
1918  is  502  million  pounds,  which  is  less  than  any  year  from 
1901  to  1908. 

We  are  making  a  great  effort  now  to  export  pork  products, 
but  our  record  in  1916  shows  the  same  quantity  exported  as 
in  19Q1,  namely,  1,462  million  pounds.  Between  these 
two  years  the  exports  of  total  pork  products  fell  as  low  as 
707  million  pounds  in  1910.  The  estimated  total  for  1918  is 
1,504  million  pounds. 

Cheese  exports  now  also  are  greatly  stimulated  because  of 
the  food  situation  in  the  countries  of  the  Allies,  but  the  amount 
exported  in  1917  was  practically  the  same  as  our  average 
exports  25  years  ago — 66  million  pounds.  Less  than  half  as 
much  will  go  out  in  this  year,  1918.  Four  years  ago  the 
cheese  exports  were  less  than  3  million  pounds.  Our  heavy 
imports  of  cheese  have  greatly  decreased. 

As  to  wheat  and  flour,  these  exports  also  have  fallen  greatly. 
In  1917,  with  the  sacrifice  which  we  made  during  the 
first  three  months  we  were  in  the  war,  we  exported  only  as 
much  as  we  sent  out  in  1903,  203  million  bushels  of  wheat 
(including  flour  reduced  to  wheat).  In  this  year,  1918,  we 
will  send  out  only  about  132  million  bushels  (and  about  30 
million  bushels  of  this  will  have  been  imported) .  Five  times 
between  1901  and  1917  our  wheat  exports  (including  flour)  fell 
below  100  million  bushels,  and  one  year  it  was  below  50  million 
bushels.  With  our  record-breaking  crop  and  the  strong  de- 
mands from  Europe,  we  exported  333  million  bushels  in  1915, 
but  the  exports  fell  to  243  million  bushels  in  1916,  and  to  204 
million  in  1917.  Exports  of  corn  (including  corn  meal)  also 
have  fallen  off  greatly.  In  1900  they  were  about  200  million 
bushels,  in  1910  about  50  million  bushels,  the  same  in  1915, 
40  million  bushels  in  1916,  and  66  million  bushels  in  1917. 

We  have  now  entered  a  third  period  in  agriculture  which 
was  formally  recognized  14  months  ago  when  we  entered  the 
war.  We  were  facing  a  crisis  in  agriculture  at  the  time.  It  is 
a  period  of  increasing  production  to  meet  war  demands.  The 
need  of  increasing  food  production  has  been  strongly  empha- 
sized for  three  purposes:  To  help  feed  our  Allies,  to  provide  for 
our  increased  population,  and  to  meet  the  increased  demands 
for  food  which  come  with  increasing  industrial  activities 
throughout  this  country. 

Food  production  in  the  countries  of  the  allies  is  greatly 
decreased.  In  France  the  total  cereal  production  has  been 
reduced  nearly  50  per  cent,  cattle  have  been  reduced  16  per 
cent,  sheep  35  per  cent,  and  hogs  40  per  cent.  Meat  con- 
sumption in  France  is  reduced  36  per  cent,  with  three  meatless 
days  per  week.     There  are  many  restrictions  on  the  diet. 


Our  Wheal 
Exports 


War 
Production 


22 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 


Dangers  of 

Food 

Shortage 


What  this 
Nation  is 
Doing 


State  Colleges 
and  Federal 
Department 


The  French  High  Commissioner  tells  us  that  in  France  they 
may  make  ice  cream,  but  they  may  not  put  in  it  sugar,  cream, 
or  flour. 

In  Great  Britain  strenuous  efforts  are  being  made  to  sustain 
the  food  supply,  but  there  to  a  large  extent,  as  in  France  to  a 
less  extent,  they  have  always  depended  upon  imports  of  food, 
and  the  imports  are  interfered  with  seriously.  The  United 
Kingdom  produces  about  dl/i  million  tons  of  grain  and  im- 
ports 10^2  million  tons;  total  requirements  are  about  17 
million  tons.  A  large  part  of  this  is  consumed  by  animals 
which  produce  milk  and  meat,  but  serious  attention  is  being 
given  to  the  suggestion  that  the  number  of  animals  must  be 
severely  reduced  so  as  to  make  the  food  they  consume  avail- 
able for  people. 

We  are  reminded  of  what  happened  in  Russia  when  the 
food  supply  became  short  and  how  a  shortage  of  food  affected 
the  surrender  of  Roumania  and  the  collapse  of  a  wing  of  the 
Italian  army. 

Those  of  us  who  are  engaged  in  food  production  and  food 
manipulation  and  handling  may  well  believe  that  "food  will 
win  the  war"  and  guide  ourselves  accordingly. 

Three  days  after  Congress  declared  a  state  of  war  existed 
between  Germany  and  this  Nation,  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture 
presided  over  a  conference  in  St.  Louis  where  questions  relat- 
ing to  food  production  were  carefully  considered  and  policies 
were  formulated.  This  conference  and  a  similar  but  smaller 
one  in  California  were  attended  by  agricultural  leaders  from 
all  the  States.  The  recommendations  of  this  conference 
have  been  supported  in  the  main  by  congressional  action, 
including  emergency  appropriations.  The  farmers  have 
responded  splendidly. 

During  the  year  1917  live  stock  of  all  kinds  increased  in 
number.  The  number  of  acres  of  six  leading  food  crops  was 
increased  from  202  million  in  1916  to  226  million  in  1917, 
12  per  cent,  while  the  production  of  these  same  crops  in- 
creased from  5  billion  to  6  billion  bushels,  20  per  cent.  Farm- 
ers made  this  record,  which  apparently  they  are  maintaining 
and  exceeding  in  the  present  year,  in  spite  of  many  difficulties. 
The  cost  of  labor  increased  in  some  sections  100  per  cent. 
They  found  it  difficult  to  secure  fertilizers.  There  was  a 
shortage  of  good  seed.  There  was  a  shortage  of  transporta- 
tion, having  the  effect  of  a  serious  overproduction  of  certain 
crops. 

These  difficulties  have  been  handled  vigorously  by  farmers 
themselves.  They  have  been  assisted  from  different  sources, 
including  especially  State  colleges  of  agriculture  and  the 
Federal  Department  of  Agriculture.  Steps  have  been  taken 
to  find  all  unemployed  labor  and  put  it  to  work.  The  Federal 
Seed  Stocks  Committee  is  doing  a  vast  work  in  finding  the 


PEARSON:    WAR  AGRICULTURE  23 

best  seed  possible  and  making  it  available  where  it  is  most 
needed  at  cost  prices.  More  complete  information  than 
ever  before  is  being  given  to  farmers  concerning  agricultural 
production  along  special  lines  in  different  parts  of  the  country. 
Never  in  our  history  have  there  been  waged  more  campaigns 
against  destructive  diseases  and  insects  affecting  both  animals 
and  plants.  Better  methods  of  production  are  being  encour- 
aged in  every  way  possible. 

There  is  now  located  in  practically  every  agricultural  county 
of  the  country  an  expert  known  as  a  county  agricultural 
agent  or  a  demonstration  agent,  whose  business  it  is  to  advise 
farmers.  In  many  counties  a  similar  woman  agent  is  serving 
in  the  interest  of  food  production  and  conservation  in  which 
women  are  interested. 

The  situation  demands  of  the  farmers  of  the  country  four 
things  in  particular  in  reference  to  production: 

1.  To  maintain  and  strengthen  good  methods  of  farming.   WhatFarm- 
This  is  to  assure  as  large  or  larger  production  next  year  and  e£s,  f.   D 
in  later  years  as  may  be  required. 

2.  To  produce  as  much  as  possible  of  the  food  and  feed 
needed  in  the  locality  where  it  is  to  be  used.  This  is  to  relieve 
transportation. 

3.  To  produce  a  surplus  of  exportable  grains.  This  is  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Allies. 

4.  To  avoid  producing  more  of  perishable  products  than 
can  be  cared  for.     This  is  to  prevent  unnecessary  losses. 

Your  help  is  needed  in  several  ways. 

First.     There  should  be  an  active  campaign  in  every  busi-  Cooperation 

ness  community  to  find  men  employed  in  stores,  offices,  and  %h .ien 

p  .  ,  ill  i    •      j-  i     jP  armers  and 

manufacturing  pfants  who  have  been  trained  in  farm  work  Business 

and  who  can  be  spared  to  assist  on  the  farms  during  the  peak  Men 
of  the  load.  In  harvest  season  in  some  sections  of  the  country 
almost  every  able-bodied  man  who  is  not  in  military  service 
should  be  on  the  farm.  The  additional  food  that  one  addi- 
tional helper  may  save  is  an  important  item  to  ourselves  and 
the  Allies. 

Second.  In  some  sections  the  assistance  of  business  men 
is  needed  to  help  the  public  to  see  that  some  increased  prices 
of  agricultural  products— eggs,  for  instance — are  legitimate. 
Because  of  misunderstanding  there  have  been  boycotts  and 
much  harm  has  resulted. 

Third.  Wholesale  grocers  through  their  own  efforts  and 
their  correspondents  can  accomplish  much  toward  inducing 
the  public  to  consume  food  produced  at  home  or  near  by. 
It  is  just  as  unreasonable  for  canned  peas  to  be  shipped  both 
ways  across  the  country  as  for  coal  to  be  so  shipped.  The 
cross  hauling  of  food  products  should  be  reduced  to  the  lowest 
possible  amount.     We  are  making  good  progress  in  eating 


24 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 


Standards 
Simplify 
Food 
Production 


Workers 
Behind  the 
Scenes 


things  produced  in  the  locality,  but  much  more  needs  to  be 
done  along  this  line.  Also  farmers  need  to  be  encouraged 
to  produce  more  articles  that  can  be  consumed  in  their  locality. 
This  relates  particularly  to  sections  which  are  habitually 
importing  food  products  that  they  can  raise  as  well  as  not. 

Fourth.  Particularly  the  public  should  be  encouraged  to 
use  food  products  that  are  both  good  and  cheap.  At  the 
present  time  this  includes  dairy  products.  The  dairy  in- 
dustry has  suffered  severely  because  of  the  reduced  consump- 
tion of  milk  and  milk  products.  When  the  dairy  industry 
suffers  agriculture  suffers,  and  in  the  end  this  means  a  smaller 
production  of  field  crops,  and,  therefore,  higher  prices  for 
them.  Last  spring  the  grocers  of  this  country,  under  the 
leadership  of  President  Whitmarsh  and  Mr.  Lichty,  gave 
much  assistance  in  encouraging  the  larger  use  of  potatoes, 
which  were  very  abundant  and  cheap.  Another  spring, 
similar  action  may  be  needed  to  help  dispose  of  some  other 
crop,  and  thus  we  will  save  the  less  perishable  products  to  be 
stored  or  exported. 

Fifth.  With  the  extension  of  recognized  standards  for 
food  products,  the  whole  subject  of  food  production  and  de- 
livery is  being  simplified  and  stabilized.  I  do  not  refer  to 
legal  standards  so  much  as  to  commercial  standards.  The 
time  should  come  when  distributors  of  food  may  deal  more 
directly  with  producers  through  the  aid  of  established  stand- 
ards, and  thus  eliminate  some  expensive  handling  and  sort- 
ing that  seems  to  be  unavoidable  at  the  present  time. 

Sixth.  In  the  interest  of  our  national  development  at  all 
times  and  in  the  interest  of  war  efficiency  just  now,  our  agri- 
culture must  be  well  maintained.  It  should  be  remembered 
that  the  agricultural  unit  is  a  small  unit.  There  are  six 
million  farms  in  this  country,  each  an  individual  unit.  It 
is  to  the  interest  of  persons  who  do  not  live  on  farms,  even 
more  than  to  the  interest  of  those  who  do  live  on  farms,  that 
production  shall  be  kept  up.  This  means  that  all  people, 
not  farmers  alone,  but  those  who  live  in  cities  as  well  as  the 
farmers,  are  interested  in  experimental  and  educational 
activities  along  agricultural  lines  as  conducted  by  the  Federal 
Government  and  the  States.  These  efforts  should  be  liberally 
supported. 

Losses  amounting  to  millions  of  dollars,  which  must  come 
indirectly  from  the  pockets  of  the  public,  can  be  greatly  re- 
duced oftentimes  by  trifling  expenditures.  This  thought  is 
sufficiently  well  recognized  by  many  public  men,  editors,  and 
statesmen,  but  it  needs  to  be  impressed  upon  others. 

In  conclusion  I  want  to  say  that  the  work  of  farmers  and 
the  work  of  wholesale  grocers  in  this  war  is  alike,  in  that  the 
better  it  is  done  the  less  attention  it  will  attract — there  is 
nothing  spectacular  about  it;  we  are  workers  behind  the  scenes. 


PEARSON:    WAR  AGRICULTURE  25 

And  let  me  say  that  farmers  desire  to  cooperate  with  you 
not  only  in  the  ways  I  have  indicated,  and  which  relate  to 
agricultural  work,  but  also  in  similar  ways  relating  to  the 
welfare  of  your  own  industry  in  so  far  as  this  contributes  to 
the  national  welfare.  If  there  are  questions  on  which  they 
need  to  be  better  informed,  the  information  should  be  suit- 
ably arranged  and  given  to  them  through  some  of  the  many 
channels  of  communication  that  are  available. 

We  have  just  read  in  the  newspapers  that  the  King  of  We  Must 
Austria  wrote  to  the  King  of  Roumania  that  this  is  a  time  jfnnti 
when  kings  should  stick  together.  A  true  statement.  We 
want  them  to  stick  together  in  all  cases  where  they  stand 
against  humanity  and  justice — and  to  fall  together.  We 
know  that  their  fate  rests  with  our  own  Nation.  If  the 
great  principles  we  now  uphold  are  to  endure,  we  too  must 
stick  together — our  Army  and  Navy,  wholesale  grocers, 
farmers,  laborers,  and  all  loyal  groups  and  individuals,  which 
should  include  the  whole  Nation.  We  must  sympathize  with 
each  other  and  help  each  other  and  uphold  our  leaders.  Then 
the  years  we  have  enjoyed  as  an  independent  people,  the 
tears  that  have  been  shed,  and  the  blood  that  has  been  spilled, 
shall  not  have  been  in  vain. 


Together 


War  Banking  and  Farming 


Saying 
"Boo"  to 
Germany 


An  Un- 
precedented 
Task 


An  address  by  Clarence  Ousley,  Assistant  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  before 
the  Virginia  Bankers'  Association  at  Old  Point  Comfort,  Va.,  June 
21,  1918. 

A  YEAR  AGO  business  men  were  sounding  the  slogan 
"Business  as  usual,"  by  which  they  expressed  the  hope 
that  the  greatest  war  in  history  could  be  conducted  without 
serious  interruption  of  business.  There  were  those  who  seemed 
to  think  that  in  some  mysterious  way  the  Government  or  the 
Congress  or  the  President  or  the  Army  and  Navy,  or  some 
power  at  Washington,  could  destroy  the  mightiest  war  machine 
ever  constructed  with  only  slight  increases  of  taxes,  with  no 
change  in  daily  habit,  with  no  diminution  of  peace-time 
profits,  with  no  inconvenience  in  living,  and  with  the  loss  of 
only  a  few  of  the  more  adventurous  youths  who  were  willing 
to  give  their  bodies  for  the  glory  of  adventure.  A  large  num- 
ber of  our  people  entertained  the  rather  confident  hope  that 
by  lending  the  Allies  a  little  money,  supplying  them  with 
food,  and  making  a  military  display  on  this  side  the  Germans 
would  be  frightened  into  submission.  Indeed,  some  were  so 
conceited  as  to  imagine  that  all  that  was  necessary  to  end 
the  war  was  for  the  mighty  United  States  to  say  "Boo!" 

Thoughtful  men  now  realize  how  vain  were  such  expecta- 
tions. Far-seeing  men  believe  that  we  have  just  begun  to 
fight,  and  wise  men  realize  that  the  only  safe  policy  is  for  us 
to  assume  that  the  struggle  will  be  long  and  bitter.  It  is 
vain  to  ask  how  long  the  war  will  last,  for  such  questioning 
tempts  us  to  guess,  and  when  we  go  to  guessing  our  self-in- 
terest causes  us  to  guess  the  best  and  so  to  take  some  chance 
in  effort  or  sacrifice.  All  that  we  know  is  that  we  must  win, 
and  we  actually  invite  disaster  if  we  do  not  proceed  every 
day  and  every  hour  to  lay  all  that  we  have  at  the  feet  of  the 
Government,  for  unless  we  win  we  will  have  nothing  that  is 
worth  keeping.  In  view  of  what  has  happened  during  the 
last  few  weeks,  the  man  who  now  falters  or  hesitates  or  grum- 
bles is  a  sorry  grouch  or  a  dangerous  gambler  or  a  contempti- 
ble coward  or  a  hateful  profiteer,  or  he  is  a  fool  and  should 
not  be  at  large.  We  now  know,  what  we  were  a  long  time  in 
realizing,  that  if  we  permit  England,  France,  Italy,  and  Bel- 
gium to  succumb  the  final  contest  will  be  ours  alone. 

The  task  that  confronts  us  is  as  different  from  anything  we 
ever  contemplated  or  prepared  for,  as  the  midnight  of  bar- 
barism differs  from  the  noonday  of  civilization.  Indeed,  we 
are  called  back  from  the  twentieth  century  to  the  dark  ages 
— and  farther,  for  we  are  battling  with  purposes  as  bold  as 

26 


OUSLEY:     WAR  BANKING  AND  FARMING  27 

the  Egyptian  and  the  Babylonian  conquests  and  as  unblush- 
ing as  black  piracy,  and  we  are  at  grips  with  lusts  as  primal 
as  the  passions  of  the  cave  men.  Germany's  reversion  to  the 
savage  type  was  not  more  surprising  than  it  would  be  if  to- 
morrow morning  a  group  of  the  most  powerful,  best  devel- 
oped, and  most  enterprising  States  of  this  Union  were  to  rise 
up  with  gun  and  torch  and  begin  to  burn  and  kill  with  the 
fixed  purpose  of  seizing  all  our  possessions  and  enslaving  the 
entire  population.  Only  a  maniac  could  have  conceived  such 
an  enterprise,  and  only  a  brutish  nature  would  have  attempted 
it,  but  unhappily  so  large  a  number  of  the  German  people  are 
infected  with  the  mania  and  the  brutishness  that  they  are 
moving  with  an  almost  irresistible  momentum  as  an  insensate 
and  hypnotized  host  under  the  will  of  a  cabal  that  for  50 
years  has  planned  the  conquest  of  the  world.  It  would  be 
unthinkable  if  it  were  not  a  fact.  It  is  a  deadly  challenge  to 
the  free  peoples  of  the  earth,  and  they  must  submit  or  they 
must  roll  back  the  murdering,  ravaging  hordes,  and  with  one 
mighty  blow  shatter  forever  the  idol  of  autocracy  which 
shames  the  intelligence  and  mocks  the  morality  of  its  wor- 
shipers. But  it  is  no  easy  task.  It  may  take  years  and  it 
will  take  many  lives  and  much  treasure,  but  without  victory 
treasure  is  trash  and  life  is  bondage. 

Bad  as  all  war  is,  this  war  is  so  bad,  so  wicked,  and  so  vast 
that  we  must  begin  to  think  about  it  in  elemental  concepts. 
It  is  the  breaking  up  of  the  foundations  of  the  great  deep  of 
customary  thought  and  habit;  it  is  chaos  come  again.  It  is  of"war 
not  to  be  reckoned  in  terms  and  figures  which  ordinarily  ex- 
press values,  possessions,  and  resources.  We  can  not  compute 
its  cost  in  terms  of  capital  and  credit,  for,  if  we  attempt  that, 
we  will  despair  at  its  very  hugeness.  We  must  think  of  it  in 
terms  of  men,  guns,  metal,  powder,  food,  and  raiment,  and 
we  must  resolve  to  endure  as  long  as  we  can  make  the  earth 
produce  food  and  raiment,  and  when  we  think  in  such  terms 
we  will  realize  that  with  our  Allies  we  have  more  resources 
than  the  Central  Powers  can  command,  that  we  can  endure 
for  unnumbered  years,  and  therefore  that  we  will  win  or  that 
we  will  drag  the  German  beast  with  us  in  death  to  the  judg- 
ment bar  of  God. 

I  have  no  responsibility  for  military  activities,  and  have  no 
knowledge  of  military  plans,  beyond  what  any  intelligent 
citizen  can  gather  from  official  statements  and  newspaper 
publications,  but  it  is  worth  saying  that  the  United  States  is 
meeting  the  war  issue  in  a  manner  creditable  to  the  patriot- 
ism and  to  the  efficiency  of  our  people.    The  pessimists  have 
been  too  gloomy  and  the  optimists  have  been  too  hopeful. 
Between  these  two  extremes  the  Government  and  the  great  Moving 
body  of  the  people  are  moving  steadily  and  surely  in  the  ^ieadily 
mobilization  of  a  victorious  army,  navy,  and  other  military   victory 
factors.     Within  twelve  months  we  multiplied  our  military 


Materials 


28  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

equipment  tenfold.  There  is  not  an  industry  or  an  individual 
in  the  world  who  could  have  done  so  much  in  the  expansion 
of  a  private  undertaking.  There  is  not  a  bank  in  the  United 
States  or  a  factory  or  a  store  that  in  12  months  could  have 
expanded  its  activities  by  10  times  in  buildings,  stock,  equip- 
ment, expert  management,  and  skilled  labor. 

But  after  all,  our  greatest  achievement  to  war  ends  has  been 
agricultural  production.  There  has  been  more  or  less  diffi- 
culty, with  occasional  breakdown,  in  mining,  in  manufactur- 
ing, and  in  transportation,  due  to  the  sudden  and  severe  strain 
of  war  upon  normal  equipment,  but  there  has  been  no  break- 
down in  agriculture.  It  seems  providential  that  a  little  more 
than  half  a  century  ago  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
created  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  a  system  of  land- 
grant  colleges  for  teaching  agriculture,  mechanic  arts,  and 
military  science.  The  succeeding  acts,  multiplying  their 
functions,  increasing  their  funds,  and  correlating  them  into 
one  great  cooperative  educational  agency,  constitute  a  body 
of  statesmanship  less  spectacular  but  more  fruitful  of  human 
comfort,  and  happily  more  potential  in  the  present  crisis, 
than  any  single  or  collective  body  of  statesmanship  in  the 
history  of  the  Republic,  or  possibly  in  the  history  of  the 
race. 

No  nation,  except  Germany,  was  prepared  for  the  war  that 
broke  in  1914,  and  no  department  of  the  American  Govern- 
ment was  prepared  at  the  moment  of  our  entrance  into  the 
Great  Work  war  except  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  because  the  De- 
<if  Farmers  partment's  war  tasks  were  simply  its  peace  tasks  increased 
and  readjusted.  Within  three  days  after  the  declaration  of 
war,  the  Department  and  representatives  of  the  land-grant 
colleges  and  the  State  commissioners  of  agriculture  initiated 
an  agricultural  war  program  which,  with  the  aid  of  the 
farmers'  organizations  and  the  agricultural  press,  was  exe- 
cuted with  remarkable  results.  Notwithstanding  labor  diffi- 
culties, the  farmers  of  the  United  States  instantly  readjusted 
their  plans,  increased  their  plantings,  and  harvested  the  great- 
est crops  in  our  history.  In  only  two  particulars  was  there 
disappointment.  Winter  wheat  suffered  an  exceptionally 
severe  winterkill,  and  our  greatest  corn  crop  was  reduced  in 
feeding  value  by  premature  frost.  In  all  other  respects  the 
American  farmer  exceeded  expectations.  Our  production  of 
the  leading  cereals  was  a  billion  bushels  more  in  1917  than  in 
1916,  and  there  were  increases  also  in  cattle,  both  beef  and 
dairy,  in  hogs,  horses,  and  sheep,  so  that  while  we  have  had 
to  deny  ourselves  some  white  bread  in  order  to  supply  our 
friends  on  the  other  side,  we  have  been  abundantly  fed  and, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  not  practiced  more  conservation 
than  was  good  for  our  health. 

Following  the  achievement  of  1917,  the  farmers  of  the 
United  States,  in  spite  of  increased  labor  difficulties,  have 


OUSLEY:    WAR  BANKING  AND  FARMING  29 

still  further  increased  their  acreage,  and  the  seasons  so  far  still  M 
have  been  more  favorable  than  usual,  so  that  on  the  7th  of  this  Year 
June  the  Department  of  Agriculture  was  able  to  report  a 
total  wheat  acreage  of  58,881,000,  an  increase  of  28.2  per 
cent  over  the  acreage  harvested  in  1917.  The  condition  was 
87.7  compared  with  78.5  per  cent  the  year  before,  and  the 
indicated  yield  is  931,000,000  bushels,  compared  with  651,- 
000,000  bushels  last  year,  and  809,000,000  bushels,  average 
from  1912  to  1916.  Notwithstanding  this  increase  of  wheat, 
there  is  also  an  increase  of  oats,  barley,  and  rye,  and  there 
will  probably  be  an  equal  acreage  in  corn.  In  other  words, 
responding  to  the  appeals  of  the  Government,  and  accepting 
the  advice  of  the  Department  and  the  land-grant  colleges  as 
to  the  crops  needed,  and  giving  the  least  concern  to  the  crops 
that  seemed  to  the  individual  farmer  to  promise  the  greatest 
profit,  the  farmers  of  the  United  States  have  put  under  the 
plow,  this  year,  more  land  than  was  under  the  plow  last 
year.    The  yield  depends  upon  weather  and  labor. 

Before  the  war  we  were  receiving  nearly  a  million  immi- 
grants a  year,  and  from  these  newcomers  we  drew  the  neces- 
sary increments  of  labor  for  our  expanding  industries.  We 
have  no  such  source  of  labor  now,  nor  will  we  have  it  for  many 
years  after  the  war  closes,  for  the  restoration  of  Europe  will 
make  labor  conditions  as  attractive  there  as  here.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  war  has  greatly  stimulated  all  manufacturing 
industries  that  have  any  relation  whatever  to  military  equip- 
ment or  supplies.  The  industrial  pressure,  of  course,  became 
greater  after  our  entrance  into  the  war.  As  a  consequence  of 
all  this,  wages  and  living  conditions  have  become  so  attractive 
in  the  cities  that  much  labor  has  left  the  farms  and  there  is 
not  now  labor  enough  awaiting  or  seeking  employment  to 
supply  the  farmers  at  the  seasons  of  great  strain  in  culti- 
vation and  harvest.  These  conditions  present  a  grave  prob- 
lem. The  Government  can  not  create  labor,  nor  can  it  coerce 
labor,  nor  can  we  afford  to  diminish  or  in  the  slightest  degree 
to  hinder  our  war  industries,  nor  to  stop  by  one  man  the  flow 
of  soldiers  to  reinforce  our  hard-pressed  Allies  on  the  western 
front.  The  farmers  have  planted  the  crops.  God  has  sent 
the  sunshine  and  the  rain  to  make  them  grow.  The  farmers 
alone  can  not  harvest  the  crops.  We  must  have  the  crops. 
What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it? 

The  order  of  the  Provost  Marshal  General,  effective  July 
1 ,  requiring  all  men  of  draft  age  in  deferred  classification  to  p-^  or 
engage  in  some  useful  occupation,  will  furnish  some  relief, 
because  it  will  drive  young  men  now  waiting  on  tables,  run- 
ning elevators,  serving  as  porters  and  clerks,  to  engage  in 
some  service  that  the  War  Department  considers  essential 
or  to  be  drawn  into  the  Army.  That  may  serve  for  the  time 
being  and  in  some  places,  but  unless  my  calculations  are  at 
fault  it  will  not  serve  everywhere.     I  know  it  will  not  serve 


30  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

in  the  wheat  belt,  where  labor  must  be  mobilized  in  large  vol- 
ume for  a  few  days  at  a  time.  I  think  it  will  not  serve  in  the 
cotton  fields  of  the  South  if  the  crop  yield  approximates  the 
present  promise.  I  think  it  will  not  serve  in  many  of  the 
trucking  districts  of  Virginia,  especially  in  those  regions  which 
already  have  suffered  in  this  respect. 

The  time  has  come  when  by  public  opinion  or  by  local  law, 
State  and  municipal,  but  most  important  of  all  by  the  exam- 
ple of  men  of  affairs  who  are  the  leaders  in  their  communities, 
every  able-bodied  man  must  be  persuaded  to  cease  to  do 
things  that  women  can  do  as  well  or  things  that  are  un- 
necessary from  the  standpoint  of  war  and  needful  business 
activities.  In  a  time  like  this  no  man  has  a  moral  right, 
whatever  his  fortune  may  be,  to  employ  another  man  to  ren- 
der any  service  of  mere  comfort  or  convenience  when  the 
finest  young  men  of  the  United  States  are  in  France  digging 
ditches,  sawing  lumber,  laying  rails,  and  playing  with  death, 
and  when  the  finest  young  women  of  the  United  States  are 
scrubbing  floors  in  hospitals,  and  it  is  a  sin  that  almost  ap- 
proaches the  unpardonable  offense  against  civilization  for  any 
man  or  woman  in  the  United  States  to  engage  in  a  wasteful 
or  unnecessary  service. 

We  have  got  to  strip  for  war  as  England,  France,  Italy, 
and  Belgium  have  stripped.  We  can  not  win  the  war  and 
maintain  peace-time  habits  and  conveniences .  We  can  not  win 
the  war  with  an  army  and  a  navy  alone.  We  can  not  win  it 
with  crops  growing  in  the  field  and  unharvested.  We  can 
We  Must  not  win  it  by  depending  upon  the  men,  women,  and  children 
Strip  for  yjho  are  now  on  t}je  farms  and  who  are  working  from  day- 

fight  to  black  dark.  We  are  going  to  win  the  war  because  we 
must  win  it.  The  Government  of  the  United  States  will 
secure  food  to  feed  the  armies  and  the  civil  populations  be- 
hind the  armies,  for  unless  those  populations  are  maintained 
their  men  can  not  fight.  The  farmers  of  the  United  States 
are  going  to  feed  themselves,  and  the  city  consumers  of  the 
United  States  will  do  well  to  take  some  concern  for  their  own 
sustenance. 

Last  year  in  many  agricultural  regions  where  ordinary  farm 
labor  was  not  available  on  call,  the  people  of  the  towns  and 
cities  closed  their  stores  and  shops  and  offices  for  a  day  at 
a  time,  or  for  such  time  as  was  necessary,  and  saved  the  crops. 
By  concert  this  can  be  done  anywhere  without  material  loss 
to  any  business  or  any  industry.  On  account  of  fuel  diffi- 
culties last  winter  all  manufacturing  industries  east  of  the 
r^!^Irom  Mississippi  River  were  closed  for  15  days,  and  yet  no 
industry  became  bankrupt  and  no  body  of  laborers  were  beg- 
gared. The  State  of  Kansas  this  year  has  enrolled  nearly 
30,000  men  of  farm  experience  who  are  to-day,  as  needed,  in 
the  fields  saving  the  hundred-million-bushel  wheat  crop  which 
can  not  be  harvested  otherwise.     More  and  more  we  must 


Towns 


OUSLEY:    WAR  BANKING  AND  FARMING  31 

organize  our  man  power,  and  to  such  extent  as  may  be  neces- 
sary; for  the  lighter  tasks  we  must  mobilize  our  woman  power 
to  maintain  and  to  increase  agricultural  production,  which  is 
the  first  necessity  of  our  very  existence.  If  we  fail  in  food 
production  all  the  armies  that  can  be  assembled  and  all  the 
war  material  that  may  be  manufactured  will  be  of  no  avail. 
Nor  can  we  afford  to  hope  for  the  starvation  of  the  Central 
Powers.  While  the  German  conquest  of  Russia  and  the 
Balkan  States  has  interrupted  agriculture,  which  will  not  re- 
cover its  normal  activity  this  year,  it  can  not  be  doubted  that 
the  Central  Powers  will  gain  from  these  conquered  lands 
enough  food  to  sustain  them  another  year,  and  unless  there 
is  counter-revolution  beyond  any  present  prospect  the  sup- 
plement of  food  from  these  countries  will  increase  from  time 
to  time.  Unless  Germany  has  lost  her  genius  of  agricultural 
efficiency  her  experts  are  right  behind  her  armies  in  the  con- 
quered territory  furnishing  expert  information  and  stimula- 
tion, and  holding  out  to  the  impoverished  peasants  promises 
of  high  prices  and  prosperity  beyond  anything  they  ever 
experienced.  Indeed,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  Germany's 
hold  upon  her  agricultural  producers  is  due  to  the  service  she 
has  rendered  to  them  in  increasing  production,  in  furnishing 
credit,  and  in  marketing.  It  is  to  be  assumed  that  she  will 
attempt  to  render  the  same  service  to  the  producers  in  the 
conquered  territory,  and  if  she  succeeds  with  them  to  the 
degree  that  she  has  succeeded  with  her  own  people  she  may 
indeed  produce  such  a  state  of  comparative  comfort  among  the 
masses  of  producers  as  to  reconcile  them  for  a  long  time  to 
German  domination.  Russian  peasants,  for  instance,  have 
never  known  anything  but  tyranny  and  poverty.  If  now 
they  escape  poverty  under  German  patronage  they  may  be 
reconciled  to  endure  German  tyranny.  If  this  comes  to  pass 
then  Germany  will  realize  her  dream  of  Middle  Europe,  and 
in  an  economic  sense  she  will  be  invincible. 

Such  possibilities,  not  to  say  such  probabilities,  should 
admonish  us  to  make  sure  the  continuous  development  of  our 
own  agriculture.     The  American  farmer  is  the  best  farmer  in  Must 
the  world  and  the  American  Department  of  Agriculture,  with  Safeguard 
its  associates  the  land- grant  colleges,  is  the  best  function  of  '  9rwu  ure 
agricultural  leadership  in  the  world,  but  to  the  mind  of  the 
average  citizen  agriculture  is  a  sealed  book  or  is  a  kind  of 
natural  process  that  operates  itself,  and  in  the  view  of  many 
of  our  most  progressive  citizens  engaged  in  commerce,  agricul- 
ture is  the  legitimate  prey  of  individual  and  organized  ex- 
ploitation. 

Coming  back  to  elemental  things,  let  us  be  reminded  that 
the  primal  needs  of  man  are  food  and  raiment.  All  else  is 
luxury  and  indulgence.  The  force  which  produces  food  and 
raiment  is  agriculture,  and  in  a  true  relation  all  the  activities 
of  commerce  are  its  ministers  or  servants. 


32  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

The  most  vital  of  occupations,  it  is  in  its  rewards  and  en- 
vironment the  least  attractive.  In  the  due  appraisement  of 
real  value  and  equitable  relation  it  should  be  the  most  at- 
tractive as  it  is  the  most  wholesome  occupation.  We  have 
reached  the  point  now  where  it  must  be  made  attractive  or 
the  Government  may  be  compelled  later  to  resort  to  coercion 
in  order  to  insure  sufficient  production. 

In  a  State  like  Virginia  there  is  no  single  force  so  potential, 
so  influential,  so  efficient  in  establishing  a  proper  appreciation 
Behavior  of  0f  agriculture,  in  leading  public  opinion,  and  in  rendering 
service  as  the  bankers.  They  are  the  agents  and  custodians 
of  credit,  and  in  a  sense  they  determine  what  is  wise  or  un- 
wise, and  often  what  is  right  or  wrong  in  business  conduct. 
As  a  rule  the  banker  in  the  country  town  is  the  most  potential 
man  of  affairs  in  the  community,  and  it  is  difficult  if  not  im- 
possible to  maintain  an  industry  or  to  indulge  a  commercial 
practice  which  he  frowns  upon.  Therefore,  it  may  be  said 
that  in  an  agricultural  region  the  banker  is  the  key  man  in  all 
material  affairs,  and  in  a  large  degree  it  is  his  to  determine 
whether  the  commerce  and  the  industry  of  his  community 
shall  be  the  servant  or  the  master  of  agriculture,  or  to  put  it 
more  agreeably,  whether  agriculture  shall  wither  under 
exploitation  or  whether  it  shall  prosper  under  serviceable 
cooperation  and  accommodation. 

Unselfish  service  is  the  imperative  demand  of  the  hour- 
sacrificial  service  to  such  extent  as  may  be  needed,  justly 
compensated  service  in  all  industry  and  commerce  in  order 
to  preserve  normal  activities,  healthful  development,  and  the 
satisfied  feeling  that  comes  from  a  sense  of  justice  done 
between  man  and  man,  but  no  slacking  and  no  profiteering. 
When  millions  are  giving  their  lives  to  preserve  liberty  and 
defend  civilization,  when  the  Nation  is  taking  on  burdens  of 
debt  that  our  children  and  children's  children  must  bear  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generation,  undue  profits  are  to  be  ab- 
horred as  blood  money  and  to  be  considered  as  the  ill-gotten 
gains  of  near  treason.  If  I  am  not  mistaken  in  the  temper 
of  the  American  people  and  if  the  war  requires  the  sacrifices 
that  our  military  men  expect,  I  am  sorry  for  the  man  who  gets 
more  out  of  the  war  than  he  puts  into  it,  for  the  scorn  of 
broken-hearted  women,  orphaned  children,  crippled  soldiers, 
and  impoverished  millions  throughout  half  the  earth  will 
make  him  wish  he  had  never  been  born. 

We  are  fighting  to  prevent  one  nation  from  exploiting 
NoExploita  other  nations.  Meanwhile  we  must  see  to  it  that  one  man 
tion  of  Men  ^QQS  noj.  expXoit  other  men.  Heretofore  in  America  we  have 
respected  vested  rights;  even  when  they  were  not  right  we 
have  respected  them  because  they  were  vested.  We  have 
given  full  liberty  to  men  to  profit  by  their  wits  as  well  as  by 
their  brains.  Out  of  this  convulsion  I  think  I  see  coming  a 
complete  emancipation  from  all  tradition  and  habit  of  action 


OUSLEY:    WAR  BANKING  AND  FARMING  33 

and  thought.  Democracy  is  exercising  the  full  power  of  mass 
sovereignty  over  individual,  personal,  and  property  rights. 
It  is  commandeering  men  and  material  things  needed  to  save 
the  Republic.  If  the  war  lasts  as  long  as  it  promises,  Ameri- 
can democracy  may  acquire  the  habit  of  commandeering  for 
the  common  welfare  and  even  for  the  common  comfort.  If 
business  and  property  serve  well  during  this  trial  they  will 
deserve  to  retain  their  ancient  privileges  of  unlimited  acquire- 
ment by  legitimate  means.  If  they  serve  ill  they  invite  the 
destruction  of  their  legitimate  as  well  as  their  illegitimate 
privileges. 

I  said  a  moment  ago  that  this  war  was  breaking  up  the 
foundations  of  the  great  deep  of  customary  habit  and  thought. 
That  remark  applies  especially  to  the  subject  I  am  now 
considering.  There  is  great  danger  that  the  paternalism  importance 
now  exercised  of  necessity  will  be  maintained  when  peace  of  Service 
comes,  and  that  the  individualism  which  has  been  the  chief 
force  in  American  development  will  be  hindered  or  deadened. 
There  may  be  as  much  evil  to  industry  and  to  general  achieve- 
ment, as  well  as  to  individual  attainment  and  happiness,  in 
the  tyranny  of  a  majority  as  in  the  tyranny  of  an  autocrat. 
More  than  we  were  aware  until  we  entered  this  war,  there  is 
much  poison  of  socialism  in  the  United  States.  It  is  one  of 
the  anomalies  of  Germany's  intrigue  that  she  has  spread  the 
doctrine  of  socialism  throughout  the  world  and  has  contrived 
to  stimulate  everywhere  the  doctrine  of  pacifism  and  non- 
resistance  in  order  that  other  peoples  might  be  betrayed 
into  a  state  of  mind  and  a  condition  of  unpreparedness  to 
make  German  conquest  easy. 

Until  recently  I  regarded  socialism — which  I  have  tried 
studiously  to  understand,  because  I  am  not  one  of  those  who 
reject  anything  simply  because  it  is  new,  nor  one  of  those  who 
abandon  anything  simply  because  it  is  old — I  say,  until 
recently,  I  regarded  socialism  as  a  kind  of  freakishness  like 
cubism  in  painting,  or  as  an  affectation  of  the  ultra-high- 
brow, or  as  a  dream  of  the  unthrifty  to  get  something  without 
working  for  it,  and  I  still  think  its  followers  include  this  class 
of  foolish  folk.  But  of  late  I  have  learned  that  it  includes 
two  other  classes — men  of  sincere  desire  to  uplift  the  world 
who  ignore  the  basic  premises  of  human  philosophy,  to  wit, 
the  inherent  traits  of  human  nature  and  the  mainsprings  of 
human  endeavor,  and  men  with  a  pernicious  purpose  of 
propagandism  for  the  subversion  of  representative  govern- 
ment. 

Let  us  beware  lest  the  conduct  of  business  and  the  exercise 
of  property  rights  in  war  times  tempt  our  democracy  in  peace   H°w  io 
times  to  abandon  all  our  true  principles  and  wise  policies  of  individual- 
individualism  in  private  action,  and  deliberation  and  restraint  ism 
of  governmental  powers.     The  war  is  upsetting  so  completely 
all  traditions  of  government,  social  and  industrial  organization, 


34  THE  BUSINESS  OF  AGRICULTURE 

that  when  peace  comes  again  we  will  begin  almost  de  novo,  as 
it  were,  to  construct  and  establish  an  order  of  society,  and  we 
will  be  influenced  in  large  degree  by  war  experiences  and  in 
some  degree  by  war  passions.  It  will  be  a  fateful  time,  be- 
cause as  we  act  then  we  will  determine  the  national  order  for 
generations  to  follow.  For  these  reasons  I  have  the  feeling 
and  I  express  it  as  a  serious  admonition,  not  to  say  a  warning, 
that  the  state  of  mind  of  the  American  public  toward  personal 
and  property  rights  as  we  have  esteemed  them  heretofore  will 
be  generous  or  ungenerous,  will  be  stimulating  or  restraining 
accordingly  as  business  behaves,  accordingly  as  business 
serves  the  national  welfare  in  the  crisis  of  war.  I  have  no 
fear  of  the  state  of  chaos  that  has  come  to  Russia  in  the  name 
of  the  Bolshevik,  because  our  people  are  too  intelligent  and  too 
well  trained  in  self-government,  but  I  believe  there  is  reason 
to  fear  that  they  may  be  tempted  to  embark  upon  some 
modified  form  of  socialism  which  will  bring  a  slow  but  certain 
blight  upon  the  individualism,  the  initiative,  and  the  personal 
freedom  which  have  been  the  means  of  American  develop- 
ment to  the  first  place  in  the  political,  social,  and  industrial 
achievements  of  human  kind. 

If  at  the  end  of  the  war  we  can  point  to  conspicuous  business 
men  in  every  community  who  have  given  not  only  of  their 
time  and  their  substance  to  war  activities,  but  have  influenced 
generous  and  serviceable  business  practices,  we  will  have  the 
best  possible  argument  against  the  Utopian  dreamers  who 
imagine  that  by  law  they  can  change  human  nature  and 
equalize  the  talents  and  the  qualities  of  the  children  of  men. 
I  make  this  appeal  to  bankers  in  all  confidence,  because  I 
know  their  strength  and  their  patriotism.  They  have  ren- 
dered incalculable  service  in  war  finance  with  amazing  genius 
and  in  fine  spirit.  They  have  financed  our  industries  and 
American  our  commerce  under  the  terrible  strain  of  war.  With  our 
Leadership  captains  of  industry  and  with  our  commercial  leaders  they 
have  made  the  United  States  the  financial  capital  of  the 
world.  I  do  not  believe  they  will  default  in  discharging  the 
further  and  the  larger  tasks  that  lie  before  us.  I  have  faith 
in  the  inherent  soundness  of  the  American  heart  and  in  the 
genius  of  the  American  body  politic.  I  do  not  believe,  as 
some  idealists  seem  to  believe,  that  the  fires  of  this  war  will 
burn  away  all  the  dross  in  human  nature  and  that  we  will 
come  out  of  the  contest  as  supermen.  I  do  not  believe  even 
that  this  war  will  end  all  war  or  all  strife  among  nations  or 
among  men,  because  as  2,000  years  of  Christian  teaching 
have  not  driven  all  carnality  out  of  man,  so  man  will  not  be 
completely  born  again  from  this  travail  of  suffering  and  sacri- 
fice. But  I  do  believe  that  the  world  will  emerge  better, 
stronger,  and  more  spiritually  minded.  I  believe  that  the 
struggle  will  teach  us  that  true  happiness  consists  more  in 
service  rendered  than  in  fortunes  accumulated  or  distinctions 


won. 


OUSLEY:    WAR  BANKING  AND  FARMING  35 

Whatever  the  future,  it  happens  now  that  America  has 
become  the  most  potential  factor  in  the  world  crisis.  Our 
treasure  is  the  greatest,  our  arm  the  mightiest,  and  our  voice 
the  most  persuasive  in  all  the  earth.  If  we  are  true  to  the 
ideals  which  we  have  professed  and  which  I  hope  we  will  now 
more  truly  exemplify,  we  shall  continue  a  kind  of  leadership 
which  the  world  will  respect  and  follow  so  long  as  it  is  a 
leadership  of  intelligent  persuasion  and  virtuous  conduct,  but 
which  will  collapse  in  contempt  and  humiliation  the  moment 
it  affects  superiority  or  attempts  mastery,  for  no  nation  is 
wise  enough  or  good  enough  to  dominate  another.  It  will 
be  a  great  opportunity  but  a  great  responsibility,  and  if  it  is 
maintained  it  will  bring  us  as  much  anxiety  as  gratification, 
for  it  must  be  a  leadership  of  consecration  and  right  example. 
I  welcome  it,  yet  I  fear  it,  for  from  long  observation  and  some 
small  experience  I  know  the  burdens  and  the  perils  of  leader- 
ship. Nations,  as  men,  have  their  rise  and  fall,  and  when 
they  fall  their  last  estate  is  worse  than  their  first.  Contrary  Responsibil- 
to  the  rhapsodies  of  the  orators,  this  is  not  an  indissoluble  liesd  /UD 
Union  of  indestructible  States,  for  nothing  human  is  indis- 
soluble or  indestructible.  I  believe  our  Government  is  the 
best  yet  devised  by  man,  and  all  men  know  that  in  material 
resources  the  Nation  is  the  most  powerful  upon  the  earth;  but 
our  riches  may  take  wings  and  fly  away,  and  it  would  be 
foolish  to  assume  that  the  last  word  has  been  said  in  civil 
government,  or  that  a  better  organization  for  human  welfare 
may  not  be  evolved  in  another  environment.  When  we 
begin  to  boast  of  our  greatness  we  are  committing  the  folly 
of  Germany  and  we  are  stimulating  the  pride  that  goeth  before 
a  fall. 

Let  us  always  remember  and  embrace  every  occasion  to 
acknowledge  our  debt  to  our  Allies,  who  have  held  back  the 
tide  that  threatened  to  engulf  us  with  them  while  we  were 
unaware  of  our  danger  and  prospered  while  they  bled.  Let 
us  ever  walk  humbly  before  splendid,  unconquerable  France, 
grim  and  uncomplaining  Britain,  valiant  and  suffering  Italy, 
and  let  us  stand  uncovered  in  the  presence  of  poor,  ruined 
Belgium,  the  bravest  of  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  men, 
who  grappled  the  beast  with  her  bare  hands  and  held  him  a 
brief  moment  until  the  hosts  of  defense  could  be  assembled. 
And  through  all  the  dark  days  and  years  to  come,  let  us  keep 
our  bodies  strong,  our  minds  clear,  our  hearts  pure,  so  that 
when  we  have  finished  the  horrid  butcher  business,  we  can  Spirit  of 
wash  the  blood  from  our  hands  and  leave  no  stain  upon  them,  Victory 
brush  our  garments  and  leave  no  smoke  of  battle  upon  them, 
and  present  our  souls  to  our  God  unblushing  and  unashamed. 
In  this  spirit  let  us  go  to  each  daily  task,  however  hard  it 
may  be;  in  this  spirit  let  us  rally  for  war  as  for  a  holiday,  for 
the  day  of  victory  will  be  indeed  the  holy  day  of  the  world's 
redemption. 


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